Black Friday wasn't always associated with the day after Thanksgiving or even with shopping and sales but is now biggest shopping day of the holiday season. Sales have risen steadily since 2009 and are forecast to continue rising, equaling an expected $682 billion in total sales in 2017. Cyber Monday came about as a result of Black Friday. Shoppers who couldn't find what they wanted in stores on Black Friday or simply didn't want to go into the stores would return to work on Monday, log online and buy what they wanted. Total sales on Cyber Monday have grown from $610 million in 2006 to over $3 billion in 2016. Together, Black Friday and Cyber Monday help make the holiday shopping season a profitable one.
The first Black Friday, however, had nothing to do with shopping and everything to do with gold prices and a stock market crash in 1869. In relation to shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, the term Black Friday was first used by police officers to describe the large crowds rushing into stores to take advantage of the sales offered. Today, Black Friday is a day of sales. Stores offer inflated, sometimes even huge discounts on select merchandise to draw customers into their stores. These sales result in profits in the stores, which encourages more promotions and sales in the stores for the next year. Black Friday has been considered an official retail holiday since the 1990s. Since 2002, Black Friday has been the largest, most profitable shopping day of the holiday season every year.
