As we begin cooking our Thanksgiving meals, Black Friday will soon be here, followed by the start of the holiday shopping season.
In years past, we would hear stories from around the country of neighbors turning into bargain warriors, elbowing each other for the newest thing-a-doodles and roll-a-bobbles, wing-a-noodles and wicket-wobbles.
Those days are mostly gone, as stores eventually saw the folly of forcing people into brick-and-mortar locations on a single date and time to physically struggle over the newest toy or deal. Customers were injured in scuffles, or trampled, or sometimes shot and killed by other customers — 17 deaths and 125 serious injuries between 2010 and 2021. Deaths were bad for a corporate retailer’s image, not to mention capitalism and our country.
Retailers still host deals and specials designed to get customers in the door to spend cash for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving, but they now spread the deals out over days, or let customers pre-buy items, or they just focus less on a single day. For those of us who are frugal but dislike crowds, we can still get the things they market to us by picking them up on a slow Tuesday afternoon in December rather than in a crush at 6 a.m. on a Friday morning after using brass knuckles to smash out the teeth of a septuagenarian over an action figure.
There are many origin stories regarding the term “Black Friday.” Most Americans believe the term refers to how businesses’ profits for the year move from the “red” to the “black.” While this is now an accurate analysis, the phrase’s origin lay not in economics, but rather in the shopping chaos that formerly ensued.
The term relating to holiday shopping was first adopted by Philadelphia police officers in the 1950s, as they had to work 12-hour shifts in the City Center business district, directing vehicular and pedestrian traffic, and were forbidden from taking the day off. Businesses in Philly tried to recast the day as “Big Friday” in 1961, but “Black Friday” stuck — evoking images of tragedy and loss of life comparable to other historic “Black Fridays” — and the term eventually spread to cities in New Jersey and then nationwide. The first “Black Friday” referred to the gold price crash on the U.S. stock exchange on Sept. 24, 1869, that triggered a financial crisis.
American shoppers will spend an estimated $10.8 billion on Black Friday, $4.8 billion on Small Business Saturday, $5.2 billion on Sunday, $13.2 billion on Cyber Monday and $5.8 billion on Tuesday, with 76.2 million people shopping in retail stores and 90.6 million people shopping online or via smartphone.
Of greater importance to Sedona than Black Friday is Small Business Saturday. Founded by American Express in 2010, the event encourages holiday shoppers to visit their local mom-and-pop shops for goods, services and holiday deals. The event was adopted in 2011 by the Small Business Administration, an independent agency of the federal government created by the Small Business Act of 1953.
Despite the hype of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday has more effect on local economies. Small Business Saturday generated $17 billion in 2023 and $17.9 billion in 2022 in total revenue for small businesses, including restaurants and service businesses, down from a peak of $23.3 billion in 2021 and $20 billion in 2020 when Americans were flush with cash from federal stimulus checks, and more in line with the trend of $17.8 billion in 2019, $15.8 billion in 2018, $13 billion in 2017 and $16.3 billion in 2015.
Like the diminishing effect of Black Friday, the benefits of Small Business Monday appear to be spreading out over the holiday season rather than being concentrated on a single day. According to the SBA, there are about 33 million small businesses in the United States, accounting for 99.7% of all businesses in the country. They employ 61.7 million Americans, an estimated 46.4% of employees in the country.
Whether you’re shopping for Christmas, Hanukkah or non-religious gift-giving, shopping locally is the best use of your holiday dollars. Buying jewelry, toys, furniture, clothes, practical items, locally-themed souvenirs or knickknacks from local vendors means they can stay open and their employees and owners can buy gifts for their children, friends and families, keeping the cyclical transfer of local money alive and well.
Only 13 cents of every dollar spent at a national chain stays in the local community. Every holiday gift purchase made with a vendor online across the country or at a store outside the Verde Valley means profits go somewhere else — and sales tax revenue is used to repair roads or improve municipal services in a community we don’t live in.
All shopping locally generates sales tax for local communities. Sedona and Verde Valley retailers reinvest your money in our economy by employing our neighbors, and sales tax revenues fund local services.
Our newspapers in the weeks to come will include Thanksgiving advertising pages as well as a stand-alone Gift Guide shopping tabs, advertising inserts and inside pages of ads and specials. We hope you will use these tools to plan your holiday shopping this year and keep our local economy strong.
