The Black Friday Economy: A Financial History of the World's Biggest Sale

November 26, 2025 | Seattle, WA

Black Friday: To the modern consumer, it means doorbuster deals, overflowing online carts, and the official start of the holiday shopping spree. But the journey of this single day, from an originally critical term for police chaos to a multi-billion dollar economic indicator, is a story of shrewd marketing, retail strategy, and the unstoppable force of the internet.

I. The Negative Label: Chaos and the Police (1950s-1970s)

Before it was about profit, Black Friday was a day of pure misery for law enforcement in Philadelphia.

• The Original Name: The term "Black Friday" was coined by Philadelphia police officers in the 1950s and 60s. It was a negative descriptor for a day they absolutely dreaded working.

• The Cause: The day after Thanksgiving brought massive crowds of shoppers and football fans, causing gridlock, traffic jams, accidents, and a surge in crime.

• A Critical Term: For the police, the label was highly critical because it referred to a day of stressful, compulsory shifts and unmanageable disorder.

II. The Great Financial Rebranding (1980s)

The 1980s marked the turning point where retailers fought to shed the day's negative history and define it by its economic potential.

• The Myth is Born: Retailers successfully popularized the narrative that "Black Friday" was the day their accounting books finally moved from "in the red" (operating at a financial loss) to "in the black" (making a profit for the year). This powerful story replaced the police's critical narrative.

• Financial Impact: This rebranding transformed a day of perceived disorder into a symbol of financial success. Retailers heavily promoted the day with deep discounts, cementing it as the undisputed kickoff to the make-or-break holiday retail season.

III. The Golden Age of Bricks-and-Mortar (1990s and Early 2000s)

This era saw Black Friday reach its physical, high-stakes retail peak, driving consumer frenzy based on limited supply.

• The Spectacle: The decade was defined by doorbuster deals, scarcity, and urgency. Products like video game consoles and popular toys were limited-quantity "bait" designed to get customers inside.

• The Strategy: The primary economic goal was leveraging the fear of missing out (FOMO) to bring customers through the door, where they would inevitably buy other, higher-margin items not on deep discount.

• Economic Clout: Black Friday became consistently named the busiest shopping day of the year in the U.S., serving as a vital measure of consumer confidence for the broader economy.

  
  

IV. The Digital Awakening and Cyber Monday (2005)

The advent of the internet forced a shift, creating a complementary, non-physical shopping event.

• The Problem: Consumers were returning to their workplace on Monday and using faster office internet connections to continue their shopping online.

• The Solution: In 2005, the term "Cyber Monday" was coined by the National Retail Federation (NRF) to formally encourage online shopping on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

• The Shift: This creation marked the first official decoupling of the shopping rush from the physical store, laying the groundwork for digital dominance.

V. The Blurring of the Lines (2010s to Today)

Modern Black Friday is less about one day and more about an extended sales season dominated by e-commerce.

• The "Cyber Five": The entire five-day period, from Thanksgiving Thursday through Cyber Monday, became known as the "Cyber Five," a single economic unit where online sales rapidly overtook brick-and-mortar traffic.

• Online Dominance: Cyber Monday now routinely surpasses Black Friday in total sales, and Black Friday's own sales are largely conducted online. The emphasis has shifted from scarcity to convenience.

• Black November: Retailers have stretched the sales window into "Black November" or "Deals for Days." This strategy dilutes the traditional single-day frenzy, maximizing the total selling window and smoothing out logistics.

VI. Black Friday by the Numbers: The Global Retail Powerhouse

The story of Black Friday's transformation is best told through its monumental sales figures, which demonstrate consumer resilience and the total dominance of e-commerce.

In 2024, U.S. online spending on Black Friday officially crossed the $10 billion mark for the first time, hitting a final total of $10.8 billion, a substantial increase of 10.2% over the prior year. This rapid growth confirmed that despite economic pressures, consumers were still highly motivated to spend when major discounts were offered.

The entire "Cyber Five" weekend (Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday) accounted for a record $41.1 billion in U.S. online sales. Cyber Monday maintained its lead as the largest single online shopping day, generating $13.3 billion in U.S. sales. Furthermore, the mobile shift was undeniable, as mobile devices accounted for over 54% of all online sales during the period.

Looking Ahead to 2025: Analysts, including the National Retail Federation (NRF), are forecasting another year of solid growth, predicting that total holiday sales (November-December) will grow between 3.7% and 4.2% over 2024. For the first time, the NRF expects total holiday sales to surpass $1 trillion. This projected growth is dependent on consumers prioritizing value and continuing to use flexible payment options like "Buy Now, Pay Later" (BNPL), which saw record usage in 2024.

The Black Friday we experience today is a testament to retail evolution, a financially crucial event that successfully transformed its original, negative name into a global symbol of consumer savings and a critical barometer of the world economy.

How Retail and E-commerce Drive Consumer Trust in New Technology

November 24, 2025 | Seattle, WA

Technology is learned by purchasing.

It’s easy for us to chat with an AI, pay with our face, or hail a driverless car and think of these things as "normal." But for the average consumer, every new technology, from AI to the latest payment rail, is a new frontier.

The truth is, commerce has always been the introductory point for the masses to experience and adopt new technology. People learn by doing something useful, and nothing is more universally useful than buying and selling.

Here are five iconic examples of how commerce taught the world about complex tech:

1. 🏧 The ATM (Automated Teller Machine)

• The Technology: A decentralized, real-time networking system.

• What People Learned: Trusting a machine with money and the concept of real-time data—that your account balance could be instantly updated and accessed from anywhere.

2. 🏷️ The Barcode Scanner (UPC)

• The Technology: Data encoding (the barcode) and optical reading technology.

• What People Learned: The power of digitizing physical items. It showed consumers a simple pattern could instantly call up a name, price, and inventory status from a central database.

AI-generated image (Gemini), 24 November 2025.

3. 💻 E-commerce & Digital Payments

• The Technology: Encrypted data transfer (SSL/TLS) and remote server processing.

• What People Learned: Secure remote transactions. Consumers learned to trust the padlock icon in their browser, normalizing the secure transmission and storage of sensitive data over the Internet, which in turn made the Internet a mass-market utility.

4. 📱 Mobile Commerce (M-commerce)

• The Technology: Ubiquitous wireless connectivity and dedicated application environments.

• What People Learned: App Dependency and the secure use of the Mobile Wallet. It cemented the smartphone as the primary device for complex, sensitive activities like banking and shopping.

5. 👆 Contactless Payments (NFC)

• The Technology: Near Field Communication (NFC).

• What People Learned: Trusting Invisible Communication. The speed and convenience of "tapping" a card or phone on a terminal taught millions that a secure financial transaction can be completed without physical contact or connection, solely through proximity.

AI-generated image (Gemini), 24 November 2025.

🤖 The AI Frontier: Commerce as the New Teacher

Today, the same process is unfolding with Artificial Intelligence. For the average person, AI isn't a complex algorithm, it’s personalization, efficiency, and problem-solving. Commerce is integrating AI in simple, helpful ways that build consumer trust:

• The Recommendation Engine: When an e-commerce site instantly suggests "customers who bought X also bought Y," or presents a tailored landing page, it is a simple application of a complex AI that makes the shopping experience feel more intuitive and relevant.

• Virtual Try-Ons and Sizing Tools: AI-powered tools that let customers 'see' a piece of furniture in their room via their phone camera, or accurately determine their clothing size, teach consumers that AI can deliver practical problem-solving utility in a low-stakes environment.

• Instant Service Bots: AI-driven customer service bots resolve common issues (like "Where is my order?") immediately and efficiently. This teaches the consumer to rely on AI for quick, accurate service, normalizing the idea of receiving help from a non-human entity.

Commerce is integrating AI in simple, helpful ways that build consumer trust.

The Takeaway: As AI moves from the data center to the checkout aisle, commerce will once again be the patient, practical teacher that makes the new frontier feel familiar. It lowers the barrier to entry by solving a simple, everyday problem: "How can I buy this better, faster, or more personally?"

What piece of everyday tech did you first encounter while shopping?

The U.S. Penny is Dead. What's Next? From Pennies to "Brand Coins".

 As of November 12, 2025, the United States officially ceased production of the penny.

It happened quietly last Wednesday. There were no parades, just a ceremonial pressing of a button at the Philadelphia Mint. As of November 12, 2025, the United States officially stopped making the penny.

For most, this is just a nostalgic headline, a fond farewell to the copper coin we’ve ignored on sidewalks for decades. But if you look closer, the death of the penny is actually the first domino in a massive shift in how we pay for everything.

The penny wasn't just "change."It was the anchor of precision in our economy. Now that it’s gone, we are entering a new war for your wallet, fought between credit card giants and a new contender: Retailer Currency.

Here is your briefing on what just happened, and why this simple change is about to ignite a new war between retailers and banks. The battlefield? The payment app on your phone. Retailers are no longer content to just sell you products; they want to be your bank.

Retailers are no longer content with just selling you products; they want to be your bank.

The disappearance of the penny is actually the first domino in a radical change in the way we pay for everything.

1. The Immediate Shift: "Symmetric Rounding"

First, let’s handle the housekeeping. You can still spend your pennies, but stores aren't getting new ones. To address the gap, retailers are introducing "Symmetric Rounding" for cash payments.

If you pay with cash, the total is no longer exact. It rounds to the nearest nickel ($0.05).

• $1.01 or $1.02 $\rightarrow$ You pay $1.00 (You win).

• $1.03 or $1.04 $\rightarrow$ You pay $1.05 (You lose).

  
  

Important: This only applies to cash. If you pay with a card, you are still charged to the exact penny. And that discrepancy is exactly where the trouble starts.

2. The Conflict: The "Rock and a Hard Place"

Retailers are currently stuck in a nightmare scenario.

• Cash is now "clunky": It requires math at the register, slows down lines, and frustrates customers who feel shortchanged by rounding.

  
  

• Credit Cards are "expensive": While cards offer the exact pricing customers want, they come with a ~3% "Interchange Tax."

  
  

Think about it: If you buy a $0.99 pack of gum with a Visa card to avoid rounding, the merchant pays a fixed fee (often $0.10) plus a percentage. They might lose 15-20% of that sale just to process your payment.

Retailers are desperate for a third option, something as exact as a digital card, but as cheap as cash.

3. The Solution: Enter the "Brand Dollar" (Stablecoins)

The death of the penny has created a vacuum that Stablecoins (digital currencies pegged to the dollar) are perfectly designed to fill.

Thanks to the regulatory clarity from the GENIUS Act passed earlier this year, major brands are finally cleared to issue their own digital assets. We are moving away from "Loyalty Points" (which are just made-up numbers) toward "In-Network Currencies" (which are actual money).

Why Brands Love It:

If Walmart or Amazon can get you to pay with "Walmart Cash" instead of a Visa card, they save that 3% fee. Across billions of dollars in revenue, that is a massive injection of pure profit.

Why You Will Use It: They will bribe you. Expect to see offers like:

"Pay with your App Balance and save 2% instantly."

They can afford to give you that 2% discount because they are saving 3% on bank fees. It’s a win-win, except for the banks.

AI-generated image (Gemini), 18 November 2025.

4. The Future: Loyalty Points Are Money

The most exciting (and perhaps dystopian) shift is the merger of loyalty and currency.

In the old world, you earned "Stars" that were trapped in the app. In the post-penny world, those points become programmable money.

• Micro-Rewards: Because digital currency doesn't have the heavy fees of credit cards, a brand can instantly drop $0.04 into your wallet for bringing a reusable bag.

• Interoperability: We are approaching a future where you might be able to swap your Coffee Token for Gas Token on a digital exchange, creating a parallel economy that never touches a traditional bank.

  
  

  

  This image is for illustrative commentary only and does not imply any official partnership or endorsement between Niftmint and Starbucks, Walmart or Amazon.

The Bottom Line

The end of the penny is not about coins. It is a signal that physical money is too expensive to maintain for small transactions.

As we say goodbye to Abraham Lincoln on the 1¢ coin, we are saying hello to the era of the "Walled Garden," where Amazon, Walmart, and Starbucks act as their own central banks.

Your Move: Keep an eye on your favorite retail apps. The next update won't just be about ordering ahead, it will be about how you get paid.

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