Black Friday

The day after Thanksgiving is often called Black Friday. It’s the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season. It’s ordinarily the busiest shopping day of the year.

Black Friday gets its name from the accounting world. Accountants talk about red ink when there’s a business loss, but black ink when there’s a profit. Retailers depend on Black Friday to begin the most profitable part of the year for them — Thanksgiving to Christmas.

It’s not looking good this year, however, as we all know. Rather than seeing black, retailers fear they’ll see red. Or perhaps this year, black will mean dark.

If you’re a retailer, this holiday season may be a tough one for you and your employees. But we’re pulling for you. As we’re quickly relearning, when one business sector suffers, it affects another, then another, then another.

All of us could use some joy during the remainder of the year. ’Tis the season. We may not be able to buy and give as much this year, but let’s buy and give all we can. It’ll make us feel better. It’ll make the recipeints of the gifts feel better. And it may just help our retail brothers and sisters feel better than they’re expecting to feel.