Black Friday and Holiday Discounts
Thanksgiving Day is upon us one more time where families gather together, have a feast and give thanks for everything they have. Through the years it has developed as not only a holiday where uncle Ernie has too much to drink and pontificates on the latest political news, but also the creation of Black Friday, or the day after Thanksgiving. Known as the annual kickoff to the holiday shopping season, the genesis and subsequent cementing of the day on the calendar are not quite as old as you think.
It was president Abraham Lincoln who designated the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. Since Christmas Day was 5 or 6 weeks after Thanksgiving it became convenient for retailers to kick off the annual sales and promotions for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving. By the 1920’s all the big retail giants engaged in an unwritten agreement that they would wait until then to begin their promotions. The holiday remained that way until, in 1939, with the Great Depression still raging, Thanksgiving fell on the 5th week of November, causing retailers such as Macy’s to complain that there weren’t enough shopping days left until Christmas. So in 1941 congress changed the law, designating Thanksgiving as the 4th Thursday in November.
By the 1950’s it became apparent that many workers were calling in sick the day after Thanksgiving, conveniently giving themselves a 4 day weekend. Workers began using the day to begin their holiday shopping. The first mention of the term “Black Friday” came from Philadelphia policemen in the 1960’s because the streets were jammed with shoppers causing a sharp increase in accidents.
We at Gifts of Nature Organics and our sister company A Healing Touch at IPT will be offering a host of sales and promotions, including our soap making events for the holidays. All our soaps, and we mean ALL, are SLS free. What is SLS, you ask? It’s full name is Sodium Laureth Sulfate which most soap products contain. Companies use SLS to create a rich lather and to take advantage of its intense cleaning action. But it is a harsh synthetic detergent and foaming agent that corrodes in order to clean. According to the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database, it lists SLS as a “moderate hazard” that has been linked to cancer, neurotoxicity, organ toxicity, skin irritation and endocrine disruption. You will find NONE of this in any of our soaps. So come on by, make your own holiday soap, and rest easy in the knowledge that the product you make is perfectly safe and viable.