By LAJU IREN

You must have Sheard the phrase Black Friday. From Jumia, Konga, Yudala to nearly every online and offline store, the name has been synonymous with cheap sales. Considering the dire economic situation, the catch phrase is ‘discounts on goods.’ But it won’t hurt to learn some other things you probably did not know or plan to experience during Black Friday.

 . It wasn’t always a positive term.

The first recorded use of the term “Black Friday”

referred to the crash of the U.S. gold market on September 24, 1869.

Black Friday

. The Rebirth

It later rebirth in the 1960s to mark the kickoff to the Christmas shopping season in the United States. “Black” refers to stores moving from the “red” to the “black,” back when accounting records were kept by hand, and red ink indicated a loss, and black a profit.

.The first black Friday in Nigeria was in 2010

It was fuelled by the rise of e- commerce in the country. It began with the online stores and is now just beginning to spread offline.

 . Record sales in 2016

In the US, Black Friday 2016 was expected to exceed the $3 billion mark for the first time. It hit over 5 billion. It was also expected to become  the first day in U.S. retail history to drive over a billion dollars from mobile sales. It hit over 1.2 billion.

. All that glitters  isn’t a bargain 

Experts say that the prices of several goods increased about a few weeks or months to the Black Friday season and then reduced just a bit at the start of the season. To get the best deals, one would have to monitor prices overtime.