Black Friday to ostatni piątek listopada (piątek do Święcie Dziękczynienia (Thanksgiving) w USA), kiedy sklepy drastycznie przeceniają swój asortyment. Przeczytajcie, jak ten dzień wygląda w Stanach Zjednoczonych i skąd wzięła się jego nazwa. Słowniczek pomoże Wam z trudniejszym słownictwem.
Black Friday – the day right after Thanksgiving – indicate the start of the holiday shopping season. Black Friday has become one of the biggest shopping days in America, as well as the rest of the world. Every year, most retailers cut prices on practically all kinds of products, especially smartphones, tablets, PCs, and other electronics.
Although it's not an official holiday, a majority of employers give their employees the day off to do their holiday shopping. Since 2005, it has been the busiest shopping day of the year. To attract shoppers, shops open their doors early in the morning (sometime also Thanksgiving evening) and offer special sales and promotions to the shoppers that arrive early.
Where does the name Black Friday come from?Historians believe the name started in the 1960s in Philadelphia where bus drivers and police used “Black Friday" to describe the heavy traffic in the city's streets the day after Thanksgiving as shoppers rushed to the stores. However, in the early 1980s, a more positive explanation of the name appeared. According to it, Black Friday is the day when shop owners finally begin to turn a profit for the year. In accounting terms, operating at a loss is called being “in the red" because accountants traditionally used red ink to show negative amounts (losses). Profits were usually shown in black ink. Thus, being “in the black" is a good thing because it means stores are making money.
Up until a few years ago, most major brick-and-mortar stores in the US shut their doors on Thanksgiving. They opened very early the next day to begin their Black Friday sales. More recently, many retail stores stayed open on Thanksgiving to launch their holiday sales. In addition, other retailers now launch Black Friday-based price cuts online on Thanksgiving or even a few days before.
SŁOWNICZEK
day off - dzień wolny od pracy
traffic - ruch uliczny
to rush - spieszyć (się)
to turn a profit - wygenerować zysk
in accounting terms - w terminologii księgowej/ekonomicznej
operate at a loss - działać ze stratą
red ink / black ink - czerwony tusz / czarny tusz (czerwona czcionka / czarna czcionka)
brick-and-mortar store - (tradycyjny) sklep stacjonarny
