Black Friday, Gray Thursday, Buy Nothing Day

Originally, Black Friday referred to a stock market crash that happened in 1869. It was also used to describe the crash that happened October 24, 1929, Black Tuesday.  Now it refers to the day after Thanksgiving, when a high number of sales allows retail merchandisers to be "in the black," or to make profits, even when selling some items very inexpensively. Their hope is to have customers buy other items not on sale. 

Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade has always been used to advertise items for sale the following day.

Did you know:

 

• From a shopping standpoint, stores opening on Thanksgiving call it  'Gray Thursday.'
• It is prohibited for stores to be open on Thanksgiving Day in Massachusetts.
• Charlotte, North Carolina, has the most customer traffic on Black Friday.
• Other countries also have sales on Black Friday. Most of the sales take place online, but they are present in England, Panama, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, South American countries, and Canada.
• India has The Great Online Shopping Festival that lasts 3 days.

Canada invented Buy Nothing Day, now observed worldwide either on the Friday or Saturday following Thanksgiving. Besides concentrating on saving the planet with less waste, people also have parties to cut up credit cards, have a winter coat exchange, and steer empty shopping carts around a store. Some people also see it as a way to support retail clerks required to work on a day that most others have off--at possible danger to the clerks.

Do you shop over the Thanksgiving weekend? Could you participate in Buy Nothing Day? (For college students, that's every day).

And speaking of poor college students, here are some do it yourself ideas to make simple Christmas Gifts:

http://www.onlineclasses.org/resources/100-diy-gift-ideas-for-the-cash-strapped-college-kid/

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/11/13/a-do-it-yourself-christmas-34-great-gifts-you-can-make-yourself/

Ideas to make with items from the Dollar Store: http://www.trendsandideas.com/exciting-dollar-store-diy-projects/