Voices
JOHN
FRIEDMAN
HUFFINGTON
12.02.12
Black
Friday’s
Black
Future
The fall/winter holiday season in
the United States has been undergoing a transformation for years,
from a celebration of distinct and
separate events into a severalmonth-long cacophony of merciless cheer, exuberant decorations
and endless bargain shouting. Even
the notion of “Black Friday” is a
false one — while retailers do earn
approximately one third of their
income during the end of year holiday season, the notion that retailers only start to turn a profit the
last week of November is an urban
legend (perhaps to justify the relentless marketing).
We intrinsically know and readily accept that some people never
ILLUSTRATION BY DANIEL FISHEL
get to take holidays when the rest
of us do — just think first-responders, pilots and flight attendants, the
coaches, players, concession-stand
workers and others who make postThanksgiving possible, our armed
forces and all those working in
charity around the holidays, etc.
As my friend Colin and I discussed
this column, we added up literally
millions of people who work during
the holidays so that the rest of us
can enjoy time off. And we, and the
economy, rely on them to do so.
This year, in addition to the ads,
promotions and marketing around
John
Friedman is a
communications
professional
and
sustainability
expert