Is Black Friday Really a Thing?

Featured Guests:

Sean Snaith - Director, UCF Instiute for Economic Competitiveness

Don Unser - Retail President

Anand Krishnamoorthy - Associate Professor of Marketing

Jahir Hernandez - Student, Former Old Navy employee

Tina Hand - Dean's Assistant

Jessica Dourney - Assistant Director of Outreach and Engagement

Episode Transcription:

Paul Jarley:                         Black Friday used to sound like this.

Jahir Hernandez:             They come in waves and I remember specifically that the check out line was all the way to the back of the store and you couldn't get from one side of the store to the other because that line was so massive.

Paul Jarley:                         And now ...

News Anchor:                    News Center 6 team’s Joshua Short is inside the UP Mall where the doors will be opening in just under an hour from now. Josh how are things going.

News Reporter:                Look we were expecting a big crowd. We don't have the big crowd that we expected. I got up at three o'clock excited to do my first ever black Friday and ain't nobody here. I am literally upset right now. I don't know why people did not wake up.

Paul Jarley:                         Where did all the shoppers go?

Tina Hand:                          Wasn't worth it so I haven't done it probably for the last five years.

Jessica Dourney:              I won't be there cuz I'll be watching the UCF Knights, our national champs, playing at the, in Tampa.

Paul Jarley:                         Eh, maybe they'll shop on Monday.

Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions to get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? On to our show.

Paul Jarley:                         UCF student Jahir Hernandez recalls his most vivid Black Friday memory. It was from behind the cash register at an Old Navy.

Jahir Hernandez:             The pleasure and the privilege of working Black Friday, my hours were from 1:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.

Paul Jarley:                         Jahir didn't love it.

Jahir Hernandez:             My most vivid memories would definitely be that rush I think at around 9:00 a.m. where people kinda get up, they have that turkey hangover where they're done with that. They come in waves, and I remember specifically that the actual checkout line was all the way to the back of the store and you couldn't get from one side of the store to the other because that line was so massive. You have people that are super nice that maybe they've worked in retail before, they understand the craziness. You also have those other people that are there just to get whatever they want and they're very upset.

Paul Jarley:                         Who's responsible? When did all this holiday shopping madness get its start? Black Friday isn't as old as you think. It started in Philadelphia back in the 1950s, and got its name from police officers who hated being dragged out the day after Thanksgiving to deal with the local shopping madness. It didn't become a national phenomenon until the 1980s, and by then it was reinvented to be the day that retailers finally got into the black, well, at least that's the story. Don Unser is a USF alum and retail group president at NPD. NPD is the nation's leading retail sales data company. If anyone would know when retail companies turn into the black, it would be them. And well Don, he's a little skeptical of the story.

Don Unser:                         The original roots of Bla...