Students explain Black Friday

  CARIBOU, Maine — Samantha Camy and Delaney Williams are two members of the marketing-oriented DECA Club at the Caribou Regional Technology Center who know a thing or two about business matters; on Nov. 22, they took a few minutes to explain exactly why the Friday after Thanksgiving is called “Black Friday.”    “It’s called Black Friday because it’s the first day that businesses get in the black compared to being in the red,” Williams said, describing that for businesses, black signifies profit and red signifies loss.
Camy explained that many businesses that start their year in January will operate until late November in the red — or without making profit.
“If they’re not in the black by Nov. 30, they’re in the red and they’re not profiting as much as they would like,” Camy explained. “So by the end of November, in order to meet their quotas for the year, they have sales that help them get into the black.”
Williams mentioned that often in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, businesses will make the same amount of profits as they did during the whole rest of their year.
“It’s also a good time to do (sales) because people are buying gifts for their family members, and businesses will make more profit because people are coming to stores more frequently than they would in the off season,” Camy said. “Like the mall in Presque Isle … there are more people in November and December, and there are seasonal stores.”
Black Friday sales are starting earlier and earlier, and the students offered their opinions on that as well — explaining that maybe some businesses haven’t been doing as well as they’d hoped and they want to start their sales off earlier this year; starting sales earlier also provide customers who don’t like Black Friday an opportunity to hunt for a deal.
While discussing Black Friday, Williams also shed some light on Cyber Monday: “it’s a sale on the Internet the Monday after Thanksgiving,” she explained.