What the Heck is Spring Black Friday?

[HawaiianShirts]

I went to Orange Hardware Store over the weekend, and I saw several displays labeled "Hold for Spring Black Friday." Then, while watching TV last night, I saw about half a dozen commercials for Blue Hardware Store announcing some supposedly amazing prices during their "Spring Black Friday Sale."

Can somebody tell me what this is all about? I mean, other than corporate greed, of course. What is Spring Black Friday supposed to be and where did it come from? Do these places really expect to make up a big sale and get crowds lining up at the doors in the middle of the night for it just because it sounds like the day-after-Thanksgiving madness?

Kind of a dumb name for a sales event, if you ask me.

[Dreamstalker]

I think it's just another stupid name for a spring sale; I remember Orange Hardware Store starting the nonsense last year.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

It actually makes sense for a home improvement store. Spring is when people do their DIY projects around the house, or their landscaping for spring and summer.

I don't think they actually intend for people to wait outside the store at oh dark thirty to buy paint and lumber; it's just their term for a big sale.

Should this phenomenon creep beyond Lowes and Home Depot, then yes, it would be stupid. Although this weekend was crazy busy at the swamp because it's Lowest Prices of the Season right now.

[PepperElf]

kinda like at my last job. the state has a 3-day tax-free weekend that we unofficially called "3-day black friday". (might have even pulled more hours that weekend too)

[Raveni]

Sounds like someone in marketing has never worked for a retailer that has had a real Black Friday.

[MoonCat]

At the Orange Apron I would think that would be the Friday before Memorial Day. At least, around here that's when everybody suddenly goes insane about planting flowers, buying garden tools and generally acting as if their front lawn is the center of the universe.

[CaptainJaneway]

When I worked for the Orange Apron Spring Black Friday is like their Christmas but in the Spring.


Let me tell you once the weather gets nice, it gets crazy up until fall with people buying plants and what not. All four garden registers are going and they have mobile scanning carts that will load your purchase onto a card and you take it to the register to pay. The lines get long, I mean really long.

We even had a celebrity drop in on a Sunday and all the registers were going and the lines were extremely long. We had close to three people descend on the store that day. Don't you know the next day they complained about our store on their show? So of course corporate got involve too. So the next time they came in they made sure to give them a escort and have a personal shopper. LOL.

This was about 6 years ago.

I also hated this time to because people would ask me how to take care of whatever plants they were looking at. I would tell them the only thing I was good at was killing them. LOL

[HawaiianShirts]

Sounds like someone in marketing has never worked for a retailer that has had a real Black Friday.

That was going to be my guess.

It's probably like what most of you said, though: just a big sale. I still think that "Spring Black Friday" is a terrible name for it. Why not "Spring Home and Garden Sale" or "The Big Spring Sale" or something like that?