Useful Chaos: Illuminating the Hidden Benefits of Black Friday to Retailers

Black Friday - the day following Thanksgiving - is one of the most lucrative shopping days of the year for retailers. Although Black Friday has clear financial consequences to firms, our inductive, qualitative study of retailers suggests focusing on the financial returns of Black Friday to retailers masks understanding of other important benefits it can produce. We discovered four hidden benefits produced by Black Friday to retailers and their employees: stories, learning, solidarity, and role identities. To our surprise, these benefits were produced despite chaos inflicted by customers. We theorize that Black Friday can operate as an interaction ritual to produce these hidden benefits. Preparations prior to Black Friday and customer violations of retail scripts work together to strengthen the capacity of Black Friday to produce the outcomes we observed. Our findings recast Black Friday as a cultural event for retailers, extend studies of ritual, and offer practical implications to leaders.