Fashion Terms — the Apparel Search fashion terminology directory
Black Friday is one day: the day after Thanksgiving, which is observed in the United States on the fourth Thursday of November. A sale held on November 20th or any other day is not, technically, a Black Friday sale. Pre-Black Friday fashion deals are the promotions that drop days before the true event, giving consumers early savings on clothes, footwear and fashion accessories. They first appeared only days before Black Friday, then moved to early November, and have been stretching earlier into October.
Enough is enough. The fashion industry as well as other industries have gone too far with stretching holiday sales time lines. Black Friday was originally and still is "one" day. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving.
If you are planning to have a clothing sale on November 20th or any other day besides the day after Thanksgiving, please do NOT refer to the sale as a Black Friday sale.
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday in the United States, observed annually on the fourth Thursday of November. The "day after" the fourth Thursday of November is "Black Friday". Unless you are having a sale on the day after Thanksgiving, it is not technically a Black Friday Sale.
Pre-Black Friday fashion deals typically drop days before the big event (true Black Friday), so that consumers of clothes, footwear & fashion accessories can have early savings on many products. Although they first started to appear only days before, now the Pre-Black Friday discounts usually start around early-November. However, they appear to be stretching earlier in October. The stretching of the holiday sales time line is due to retailers trying to make the most of the holiday shopping season. The thought is that the early bird catches the worm. The clothing stores want to catch the consumers spending before their competition has an opportunity. If store "A" plans to start their sale on November 15th, store "B" tries to beat them by offering promotions to consumers starting November 10th. The problem is that store "C" comes along and offers a sale starting on November 5th. You get the picture.
You may want to review our Black Friday sales guide.
Here are a few terms that have popped up around the holidays.
Learn about holiday sales which are very important to shoe stores & clothing stores around the world.
You may also want to learn about Cyber Monday Sales.
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The word pre means earlier than, prior to, or before. Technically the day after Black Friday is the start of the "pre" Black Friday for the following year.
The stretching timeline is a collective action problem. No single retailer wants to move its holiday promotions into October, but no retailer can afford to let a competitor spend a week alone with holiday shoppers either. The result is a season that creeps: days before became early November, and early November is becoming October. Each store's reasoning is sound on its own — the early bird catches the worm — and the combined effect is a Black Friday that lasts a month.
The naming discipline matters to shoppers comparing offers. The day after the fourth Thursday of November is Black Friday; sales before it are pre-Black Friday sales, sales spanning the days after it are Black Friday weekend or post-Black Friday sales, and the online counterpart is Cyber Monday. The Apparel Search Black Friday sales guide and holiday sales pages track the season's clothing and shoe offers under those labels, so an early deal can be judged as what it is: an early deal, often a good one, but not the day itself.
Competition for holiday spending. If store A starts its sale on November 15th, store B tries to beat it by starting November 10th, and store C answers with November 5th — each retailer trying to catch consumer spending before competitors have the opportunity.
Black Friday Weekend Sales, Pre-Black Friday Sales and Post-Black Friday Sales have all appeared around the holiday season, alongside Cyber Monday sales. Holiday sales are very important to shoe stores and clothing stores around the world.
Pre means earlier than, prior to, or before. Taken literally, the day after Black Friday is the start of the pre-Black Friday period for the following year — which is the point: the label describes timing, not the event itself.