# The US inflicts Black Friday on Britain **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 28, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829 "2014-11-28T16:16:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/21 "2014-11-28T22:43:44Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Well, somewhere recently I saw a claim that one in six British people now celebrate Thanksgiving :(, although I have not noticed any actual sign of it. I am not sure what they might be giving thanks for, either: perhaps getting rid of those nasty puritans. I have definitely never heard even a suggestion that any Briton celebrates Thanksgiving; and I’m quite the ‘Amerigophile’. That said, the more annoying internet generation morons in my (Bristol) office today were wanking on about Black Friday today. I tried ranting about vulgar, unnecessary consumerism, to no avail. And while we’re about it; thanks a bunch for pseudo-salt-of-the-earth right wing politics, led by Tea Party screwball Nigel Farage. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/22 "2014-11-28T22:50:37Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Well, somewhere recently I saw a claim that one in six British people now celebrate Thanksgiving :(, although I have not noticed any actual sign of it. I am not sure what they might be giving thanks for, either: perhaps getting rid of those nasty puritans. American Thanksgiving started off as a way to give thanks for a good harvest. It’s no a uniquely American concept; many countries have some sort of harvest festival. So if Brits want to have Thanksgiving when Americans do (or when Canadians do), who cares? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/23 "2014-11-28T22:51:23Z")
[_Dawn Of The Dead_ vs. Black Friday](https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/1601202_10152895813584784_5620778362129943940_n.jpg?oh=e472c2cba723245e663621774aef157e&oe=551060CF& __gda__ =1427824293_8d8c0e47e4ebfb997a5764ec5b363d4c) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/24 "2014-11-28T22:53:23Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > American Thanksgiving started off as a way to give thanks for a good harvest. Lifted from FB: ‘Black Friday: When people trample others for cheap goods mere hours after being thankful for what they already have.’ ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/25 "2014-11-28T22:57:39Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Well, Canadian thanksgiving was almost 7 weeks ago and Black Friday sales are really picking up here now. I can see the reason for it though, a lot of the sales are available on line. So, why lose out to the Yanks. People were lining up at 6:00 this morning. Most of Southern Ontario has been coming across the bridge and clogging up the roads for a couple decades now, so you are welcome to keep em on that side from now on. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/26 "2014-11-28T22:58:07Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > The NYT had an article this morning about how the best deals are found _after_ BF, so it’s rather pointless to engage in the lunacy. This is what I’ve always understood. I bought gas, dog food and a few groceries. The grocery store was blessedly uncrowded after the pre-Thanksgiving day lunacy. Actually Thanksgiving Day sales is apparently A Thing in Michigan. The couple and their extended family I usually spend Thanksgiving with gave up having Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving day, since so many family members either had to work (retail, medical) or crassly decided to stop by long enough to bolt down food someone took a lot of time to prepare, then run off to the malls and megastores to shop, or get in line for shopping. So now they have Thanksgiving on the following Saturday so fewer people have the shopping or working excuse to blow off a family holiday. That’s where I am going tomorrow. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/27 "2014-11-28T23:04:54Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Well, somewhere recently I saw a claim that one in six British people now celebrate Thanksgiving :(, although I have not noticed any actual sign of it. I am not sure what they might be giving thanks for, either: perhaps getting rid of those nasty puritans. This is certainly not true. The only way one in six Brits “celebrate” Thanksgiving is if one in six purchase a bargain on Black Friday. Otherwise we take no notice of it except when we laugh at Americans(its a pastime of ours). For years our “and finally” news items were filled with Black Friday store riots from America. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/28 "2014-11-28T23:52:09Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > As an American - I strongly advise that you newbs not attempt Black Friday without the customary Thanksgiving carb-loading and Day-Of-Naps-In-Front-Of-The-Telly. You have to train for this if you want to outrun the gunmen and the grannies with loaded carts. Don’t forget the footie matches all day long. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/29 "2014-11-29T00:21:31Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > [_Dawn Of The Dead_ vs. Black Friday](https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/1601202_10152895813584784_5620778362129943940_n.jpg?oh=e472c2cba723245e663621774aef157e&oe=551060CF& __gda__ =1427824293_8d8c0e47e4ebfb997a5764ec5b363d4c) At least the staff can shoot zombies without the authorities making a fuss. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/30 "2014-11-29T01:16:52Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > American Thanksgiving started off as a way to give thanks for a good harvest. It’s no a uniquely American concept; many countries have some sort of harvest festival. So if Brits want to have Thanksgiving when Americans do (or when Canadians do), who cares? We already have a harvest festival. Of course I can’t speak for the whole nation, but I don’t sense a yearning for another one. I don’t believe we ‘want’ Black Friday in any kind of demand-leads-supply sense. It’s being dished up to us, and some are apparently gobbling it down. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/31 "2014-11-29T01:48:59Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > We already have a harvest festival. … What’s that and when? ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/32 "2014-11-29T03:57:46Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > American Thanksgiving started off as a way to give thanks for a good harvest. It’s no a uniquely American concept; many countries have some sort of harvest festival. So if Brits want to have Thanksgiving when Americans do (or when Canadians do), who cares? That’s one of the things I like about Thanksgiving; it’s a holiday that is not tied to any one religion, or ethnicity, or nationality. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/33 "2014-11-29T04:08:52Z")
So other countries are helpless before the American cultural juggernaut? ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/34 "2014-11-29T04:27:05Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > So other countries are helpless before the American cultural juggernaut? Seems so. Hallowe’en things around here seems to be now all “trick or treat” instead of what they should be: “guising”. That’s a thing that crossed the Atlantic from Ireland and Scotland, and it’s back in a different, err, guise. :mad: When I was a kid we had to sing a song or tell a joke or story before we got anything, now it’s just an expectation of being given stuff for wearing a shitty costume. :mad: :mad: And we were lucky if we got a handful of monkey nuts, etc etc ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/35 "2014-11-29T04:29:10Z")
I’m guessing that the British harvest festival **Mangetout** refers to is Guy Fawkes Day. Which isn’t about harvest in its origins, but it’s kind of accumulated all sorts of baggage. That, or Sanheim, though that’s not really mainstream for the past several centuries. Personally, I find it a bit refreshing that one of our top holidays is a harvest festival, pure and simple. There’s something universal about harvest festivals: They span all cultures and all history. Probably, the first annual festival of any sort was a harvest festival. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/36 "2014-11-29T05:32:17Z")
First I’ve ever seen anything about it was a notice in Tescos, a British supermarket, yesterday; at which I gaped amazed. For me, Black Friday is always 24th September, 1869. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/37 "2014-11-29T05:33:27Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Wow, we really are the herpes of the world, aren’t we? I guess you are. Per the title, I think that a deeper investigation is warranted. I am suspicious that the US wanted to keep BF, but, that the Brits are stealing it from us. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/38 "2014-11-29T05:39:40Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > So other countries are helpless before the American cultural juggernaut? Hardly a new phenomenon. Anthropologist Ashley Montagu ranted about this years ago. [Touching](http://www.amazon.com/Touching-The-Human-Significance-Skin/dp/0060960280), 3rd edition in 1986, so the 1st edition must have been even earlier. On the surface, it’s all about the importance of physical contact specifically in the context of infant development. What it’s really about, if you actually read the book, is a rant about the spread of horrible parenting practices from the United States to the rest of the developing world. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/39 "2014-11-29T05:50:20Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](#): > > This is certainly not true. The only way one in six Brits “celebrate” Thanksgiving is if one in six purchase a bargain on Black Friday. Otherwise we take no notice of it except when we laugh at Americans(its a pastime of ours). For years our “and finally” news items were filled with Black Friday store riots from America. Here, from the _Telegraph_: > [@](#): > > [One in six British people now celebrates Thanksgiving, according to a new survey.](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/seasonal-food-and-drink/11255979/Why-are-Brits-embracing-Thanksgiving.html) Apparently the epicentre of this is Coventry, so I suggest any British person who wants to celebrate Thanksgiving in future, should be sent there. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829/40 "2014-11-29T06:02:11Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > We already have a harvest festival. Of course I can’t speak for the whole nation, but I don’t sense a yearning for another one. > > I don’t believe we ‘want’ Black Friday in any kind of demand-leads-supply sense. It’s being dished up to us, and some are apparently gobbling it down. > [@Leaffan](#): > > What’s that and when? > [@Chronos](#): > > I’m guessing that the British harvest festival **Mangetout** refers to is Guy Fawkes Day. Which isn’t about harvest in its origins, but it’s kind of accumulated all sorts of baggage. That, or Sanheim, though that’s not really mainstream for the past several centuries. > > Personally, I find it a bit refreshing that one of our top holidays is a harvest festival, pure and simple. There’s something universal about harvest festivals: They span all cultures and all history. Probably, the first annual festival of any sort was a harvest festival. No, [Britain has a harvest festival, called Harvest Festival](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_festival#The_harvest_festival_in_Britain), although it is not a very big deal, and AFAIK, these days is only really a church thing. Guy Fawkes Day is something quite different, has little if anything to do with harvest (there are some traditionally associated foods, such as chestnuts, but food is very far from being at the centre of the celebration), and is still very much alive, although children begging for a “penny for the guy” seems to now have been pushed out by American-style Halloween begging for sweets a few days before. There are still plenty of fireworks going off (and, no doubt, bonfires) on or around the 5th of November, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-inflicts-black-friday-on-britain/705829.md?page=3)