What is Black Friday Sale? Why is not important for India?

On the day of the Black Friday event, several big shopping giants like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Target offer great deals on products on a host of items.

New Delhi: Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is commonly seen as the start of Christmas shopping and holiday season across the US. Black Friday is usually observed on the fourth Thursday of November, which as per US time zone will be marked on on November 27 this year. 

On the day of the event, several big shopping giants like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Target offer great deals on products on a host of items ranging from electronics, computers, Home and Kitchen appliances, Clothing range, books, music etc to name a few.

What is Black Friday and why it is observed?

Black Friday shopping and deals event is a relatively new concept/term. The term Black Friday has infact became more popular in the recent decades. Black Friday is not an official holiday and it originated when a 4-day weekend was observed by people calling in sick the day after Thanksgiving. They used this time to visit stores and markets that were open to get a head start on holiday gifting. 

Black Friday in Popular Culture

The Black Friday convention found its way into the US shopping tradition somewhere after 1950s with many stores offering highly promoted sales on Black Friday and open very early, such as at midnight, or may even start their sales at some time on Thanksgiving. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but California and some other states observe "The Day After Thanksgiving" as a holiday for state government employees, sometimes in lieu of another federal holiday, such as Columbus Day. Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the following Friday off, which, along with the following regular weekend, makes it a four-day weekend, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers.

Why is Black Friday Sale not very important in India?

Black Friday sales have found its way into the Indian online shopping zone through international websites like Amazon. However, since Indian conventions and customary practices are different, this jargon has not been able to make much impact in our conversations and also in the annual sale event.

Here in India, the most sought after sale events are around Indian festivals like Dusshera, Diwali, Holi to name a few. Though lately sale events like Summer Sale, Winter sale, Christmas Sale, New Year Sale or Monsoon sale have gained some sort of footprint in the shopping arena.