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Julia Altshuler
 
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Bob (this one) wrote:

> I've never understood that "Black Friday" thing. When I was actively
> selling my food products in farmers' markets, it was always about 10
> times better than my next best day. Black Friday should be reserved for
> disastrous occasions, not the ones that pay the bills. <G>



In this case, a "black" day has both one meaning and its opposite. So
Black Monday and Black Tuesday were economic disaster days in 1929 at
the beginning of the Depression, but the day after Thanksgiving is a
black day because sales are normally so good the retailers are back in
the black on their balance sheets.


I'm interested in how sales the day after Thanksgiving work in the food
business. In the wine and cheese shop where I work, the day before
Thanksgiving was busy. We were swamped. People came in to buy large
quantities of good cheese and nice bottles of wine to serve on
Thanksgiving day. If they weren't serving Thanksgiving dinner, they
still bought both to take with them wherever they were going. The day
after Thanksgiving was dead. My boss was thinking that it would be a
good day because the day after Thanksgiving is famous for people going
out to buy Xmas gifts, and wine makes a nice gift, but instead, we were
so slow that my co-worker and I cleaned and organized 3 refrigerators.
(That's something I've been wanting to do for ages and was delighted to
have the chance. I love putting everything away where *I* think it
belongs.)


I guess the day after Thanksgiving is bound to be awful for people in
the restaurant-food business since people have leftovers in the house
but good for people in the retail-food business since people buy gifts.
Has that been the experience of the people on this list? If that
theory is correct, yesterday we learned that the wine and cheese shop
where I work is looked at more as a restaurant-food business than a
retail-food business.


--Lia