People don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in France, or Russia, or South Africa — but they do shop on Black Friday. Shoppers pass a promotional sign for ‘Black Friday’ sales discounts, outside a store on Oxford Street in London. AdvertisementTo many activists, Black Friday is the epitome of this shift, a purely commercial event designed to boost U.S. retailers ahead of the Christmas holidays, the symbol of capitalism run amok. The respected weekly Mail & Guardian newspaper decried in a scathing editorial how Black Friday is used to enrich big retailers. In Italy, for example, Black Friday falls outside the season’s strictly defined schedule for when the winter sales can be held.

Source: Los Angeles Times November 29, 2019 16:19 UTC