Black Friday is almost here. What to know about the holiday sales event’s history and evolution

BY WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS

NEW YORK (AP) — If you didn’t already guess it from a barrage of sales ads in your inbox, the holiday shopping season is upon us. And Black Friday is right around the corner.

While Black Friday may no longer look like the crowd-filled, in-person mayhem that it was just decades ago — in large part due to the rising dependence on online shopping that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic — the holiday sales event is still slated to attract millions of consumers.

The National Retail Federation projects that an estimated 182 million are planning to shop in-stores and online through the five-day Thanksgiving weekend. Black Friday is set to lead the charge, making up for 130.7 million of the potential shoppers.

At the same time, economists note that fear of inflation, while down from a year ago, is still a concern looming in consumers’ minds