Black day in the stores

Black Friday has descended upon us, as it does every year on this day.

As you may know, Black Friday traditionally marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. It’s the day after Thanksgiving Thursday and is also the turning point for American retailers—the day that they move from the red to the black in their account ledgers.

(First of all, I don’t get that—how is it possible that businesses can run in the red for almost 11 months year after year, and still stay in, you know, business? Without being airlines, I mean?)

That “official start” part of it has been blurring for years—you see Christmas (or “Holiday”, if you prefer; but—let’s face it—all that red, green, gold and silver stuff really doesn’t connote any other celebration I can think of) displays in shops cropping up at the end of September. And this year I noticed my first Christmas-themed TV commercial on the afternoon of Halloween.

But I’ve observed a couple of things about Black Friday this time around.

The Friday thing is really morphing into Thursday—you know, Thanksgiving.

For some time retailers have announced the holiday shopping season with early store openings and “doorbuster” sales—prices for leader items that are insanely low but only last for the first two hours a store is open on the Friday. (They’re designed to bring in shopping swarms whipped to a spending frenzy resembling the ardor of sports fans. And they work, producing mobs with the sensibilities of an English football mob.) Those “early” openings have crept back around the clock: 6 a.m.; 5 a.m.; 3 a.m. But until last year no one had the chutzpah to violate the Truly American Holiday.

That’s when Toys R Us broke the sacrosanct barrier and opened at 2200 on Thanksgiving.

This year TRU opened at 2100 on Thursday, beating out Walmart by an hour. Kohl’s, Best Buy and Macy’s opened at midnight. Sears appears to be the Poky Little Puppy, holding out until 0400 today.

(I see that Kmart were open from 0600 to 2100 yesterday. But they've been doing that for some time. Not that it appears to have helped their bottom line.)

And, of course, those who couldn’t wait until even Thursday evening have been finding “specials” online from these and other retailers. Amazon has got into the act big time this year.

Moreover, while the retail trade referred to it as Black Friday, the day’s offerings used to be universally advertised as “after-Thanksgiving” sales. This year they’re calling a spade a, well—you know. In both print and broadcast, businesses are touting Black Friday sales. I give you Walmart, Kohl’s, Best Buy & Macy’s by way of example.

I suppose those who favor transparency in business may view this as a positive step—no attempt at playing this as anything but what it is, retailers’ desperate campaign to push merchandise to make up for months of misreading both the economy and consumers’ minds. Not even “holiday” or “post-Thanksgiving”; just “show us the money”. “And do it now.”

I am curious about how Americans feel about spending out this year, given the global economy and the fact that our elected officials on their best day are useless (as opposed to pernicious, which is what they are most of the time). Unless you’re a corporate executive or hedge fund manager, you’re either unemployed or worried that your job could be cut at any moment. How good do the deals have to be to get you to bail out the big box stores the way we did the banks and auto companies?

No matter what you call the day or when it starts?