Brick-and-mortar stores have had Black Friday sales for a long, long time. However, there was a period during which online sales were starting to take off, but home internet access wasn’t yet ubiquitous. So people wanted to take advantage of after-Thanksgiving online sales, but they had to wait until Monday, when they were back in the office, to do so. Online retailers, recognizing both the challenge and the opportunity, began offering their big promotions the Monday after Black Friday. And, since that became one of the biggest days of the year for online purchases, people started calling it Cyber Monday.
Today, the very idea seems quaint and anachronistic. But old habits die hard, and some online retailers still offer special deals today that didn’t exist on Black Friday (or extend their Black Friday deals beyond the weekend, just in case). So if you celebrated Friday as Buy Nothing Day (good for you!) but you still have some unmet shopping needs, today’s the day to look for discounts.
