Record breaking sales have been reported from Black Friday sales for 2019.  Currently estimated over 14% year over year growth in sales topping out at 7.5 billion dollars of gross sales online.  Online shopping continued to be a strong signifier of the transition to retail consumer attention with sales hovering at 28% off retail pricing.  As expected mobile shoppers continues to grow with 73% of all digital traffic coming from mobile devices. That traffic converted to 56% of all online purchases.  This was just the online shoppers, the total number of people expected to be shopping online and in-stores this weekend broke 165 million folks. The physical retail shopping numbers are still being tallied and will be reported this week on The Bee.

The name “Black Friday” was first recorded in 1966 by Earl Apfelbaum, a dealer in rare stamps. In his ad, he said, “‘Black Friday’ is the name that the Philadelphia Police Department gave to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It is not a term of endearment for them. ‘Black Friday’ officially opens the Christmas shopping season in center city. It usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing.