Andy Tullis / The Bulletin

Colorful language

Today

Black Friday

The term — once used to describe market crashes — gained its association with whirlwind shopping during the day after Thanksgiving in the 1960s, essentially to describe the day retailers’ balance sheets went from red ink to black.

Yesterday

(Insert Color) Thursday

In recent years, retailers started their holiday promotions earlier and earlier, with efforts to change the name of the day before Black Friday — otherwise known as Thanksgiving — to Gray, Brown or Black Thursday.

Tomorrow

Small Business Saturday

A few years ago, American Express came up with this idea to encourage shopping at local businesses the day after Black Friday.

In 3 days

Cyber Monday

Online retailers, on the other hand, introduced this day in 2005 to offer big savings to holiday shoppers. “After a long weekend of pointing and clicking, millions kept right on shopping at work Monday,” using high-speed Internet, The New York Times reported at the time.

Sources: Hilary Stout, The New York Times; Bulletin research

Trends past and present

247 million consumers shopped in stores and online this weekend in 2012 — up from about226 million the year before and almost 210 million in 2010.

$423 was the average each shopper spent in 2012 — for a whopping $59.1 billion total shopping weekend. (That was up from $398 in 2011.)

41% of total spending last Thanksgiving weekend was online, up from 38% in 2011. 47.1% spent on Cyber Monday came from workplace computers. 16% of Friday sales were from a mobile device.

17% That’s the year-over-year increase spent on Cyber Monday in 2012 over 2011. Traditional Black Friday spending only increased 3%.

This year

11% That’s how much more money Americans are expected to spend during Thanksgiving weekend in 2013 over 2012.

30% of us will be shopping online for most of our purchases, up from 25% of us last year.

Sources: IgnitionOne Marketing, Bulletin research

David Wray / The Bulletin