Originally coined by the police to describe the catastrophic traffic congestions associated with the (unofficial) start of the Christmas shopping season, Black Friday has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year since the early 2000s, as many retailers started offering special discounts and opening their stores early to lure in as many shoppers as possible.

While Black Friday still is the biggest day of the year for brick-and-mortar retailers in the United States, the rise of e-commerce has helped the concept of Black Friday discounts become a global phenomenon over the past decade.

As Statista's Felix Richter shows in the following chart, based on Google Search trends, shows, Black Friday has been getting bigger every year in terms of consumer interest.

Every year?

Well, every year until the pandemic hit.