[6] The concept has since globalized, with countries around the world adopting "Black Friday" sales to mimic the US phenomenon, adjusting local customs or creating similar events.

When President Grant learned of this manipulation, he ordered the Treasury to release a large supply of gold, which halted the run and caused prices to drop by 18%.

[7][8][9][10][11][12] The use of the phrase spread slowly, first appearing in The New York Times on November 29, 1975, in which it still refers specifically to "the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year" in Philadelphia.

[19] Analyst Marshal Cohen of The NPD Group claimed in 2020 that Black Friday is declining in favor of online shopping, and that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this process.

Market research company Numerator said sellers of clothing, tools and other items considered nonessential during lockdowns were not promoted as heavily because lower production meant less available to sell.

[23] In 2009, Kmart manager Freddy Moss opened at 7 p.m. on Thanksgiving in order to allow shoppers to avoid Black Friday traffic and return home in time for dinner with their families.

[38][39][40] Similar to US-style shopping events such as Black Friday, online retailers adopted the practice of holding multi-day promotions during this period, such as Amazon's "Great Indian Festival" and Flipkart's "Big Billion Days".

On November 20, 2020, the French government finalized an agreement with e-commerce businesses like Amazon and supermarket chains to postpone Black Friday promotions by a week.

[citation needed] In Norway, Black Friday started as a publicity stunt campaign in 2010 to increase the sales to the shopping mall Norwegian Outlet.

This sales period has gained popularity in Turkey as both online and brick-and-mortar stores attract large crowds seeking bargains, often extending the deals for a few days or even over a week.

It is the day when emergency services activate contingency plans to cope with the increase in workload due to many people going out drinking on the last Friday before Christmas.

[60][61] In response to incidents at branches of Tesco, Greater Manchester Police's deputy chief constable Ian Hopkins said shoppers had behaved in an "appalling" fashion, and criticized shops for not making adequate security arrangements to ensure the safety of customers.

"[62] Following these incidents, some retailers began to discontinue or heavily modify their promotions, with Asda stating that it would not hold all of its sales across a single day.

[74] In Mexico, Black Friday was the inspiration for the government and retailing industry to create an annual week-end of discounts and extended credit terms, El Buen Fin, meaning "the good weekend" in Spanish.

In order to take advantage of this, virtually all retailers in the country, big and small, offer various sales including limited amounts of "doorbuster" items to entice traffic.

In 2010, Toys "R" Us began their Black Friday sales at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving and further upped the ante by offering free boxes of Crayola crayons and coloring books for as long as supplies lasted.

Christmas creep has been cited as a factor in the diminishing importance of Black Friday, as many retailers now spread out their promotions over the entire months of November and December rather than concentrate them on a single shopping day or week-end.

[90][91] In 2015, Neil Stern of McMillan Doolittle said, "Black Friday is quickly losing its meaning on many fronts," because many stores opened on Thanksgiving, and a lot of sales started even earlier than that.

In 2015, major retailers such as The Warehouse, Noel Leeming and Harvey Norman offered Black Friday sales,[104] and by 2018 were joined by Farmers, JB Hi-Fi, Briscoes and Rebel Sport.

Even when police arrived and attempted to render aid to the injured man, shoppers continued to pour in, shoving and pushing the officers as they made their way into the store.

[117] A man was arrested at a Florida Walmart on drug and weapons charges after other shoppers waiting in line for the store to open noticed he was carrying a handgun and reported it to the police.

[118] A man in Buffalo, New York, was trampled when doors opened at a Target store and unruly shoppers rushed in, in an episode reminiscent of the deadly 2008 Wal-Mart crowd crush.

[119] On Black Friday 2011, a woman at a Porter Ranch, California Walmart used pepper spray on fellow shoppers, causing minor injuries to a reported 20 people who had been waiting hours for the store to open.

Another account stated: "The store had brought out a crate of discounted Xbox 360s, and a crowd had formed to wait for the unwrapping, when the woman began spraying people 'in order to get an advantage,' according to the police.

[123] On Black Friday in 2013, a person in Las Vegas who was carrying a big-screen TV home from a Target store on Thanksgiving was shot in the leg as he tried to wrestle the item back from a robber who had just stolen it from him at gunpoint.

Moreover, the 2017 Veeam Availability Report in South Africa found that "Unplanned downtime costs organisations around the world an average of R270m annually, up from the R210m of the previous year".

An Internet service provider in 2003 brought suit against Best Buy, Kohl's, and Target Corporation, arguing that the take-down notice provisions of the DMCA are unconstitutional.

[145] The complex nature of additional fees such as taxes, duties, and brokerage can make calculating the final cost of cross-border Black Friday deals difficult.

For the 2nd consecutive year, Black Friday was the highest day for retail traffic during the holiday season, followed by Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.

"[152] Peter Greenberg, travel editor for CBS News, further advises: "If you want a real deal on Black Friday, stay away from the mall.