CYBERMONDAY!

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THE SURPRISINGLY POLITICAL ORIGINS OF ‘Cyber Monday’Resize Text Print Article Comments 

By Justin Wm. Moyer December 1, 2014  

Cyber Monday was invented by a conservative lobbying group. (REUTERS/Kacper Pempel)

Those allergic to Black Friday crowds — or who wait to stay from the Ferguson protesters shutting down shopping malls in an attempt to "#BoycottBlackFriday" — can take refuge in Cyber Monday. If one's employer offers Web access, an entire Internet's worth of sales awaits.

But regardless of their motivation, those who seek one deals on Samsung 55-inch Ultra HD TVs or Nest Thermostats should know: Unlike the century-long evolution of Black Friday, Cyber Monday is not the organic development of retailers who realized there was money to be made online on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Rather, it is the nine-year-old brainchild of the National Retail Federation (NRF) — a powerful lobbying group that often supports right-leaning causes such as the repeal of the Affordable Health Care Act and anti-union attempts to limit the power of the National Labor Relations Board.

It all started in 2005 — with a press release.

"While traditional retailers will be monitoring store traffic and sales on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), online retailers have set their sights on something different: Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, which is quickly becoming one of the biggest online shopping days of the year," announced Shop.org, a branch of the NRF that serves online retailers. "For the past few years, online retailers have found that sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving have been creeping higher, giving retailers an additional reason to be jolly during the ceremonial kickoff to the holiday season."

The New York Times, though calling Cyber Monday a "legitimate trend," was initially cynical.

"Because the world needs another Officially Named shopping day, the people who dreamed up Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving, when retailers hope to turn a profit) have created a nickname for the following Monday," the paper wrote at the time. "Hence the catchy Cyber Monday, so called because millions of productive Americans, fresh off a weekend at the mall, are expected to return to work and their high-speed Internet connections on Nov. 28 and spend the day buying what they liked in all those stores."

The snark wouldn't last. In 2010, Cyber Monday became the biggest online shopping day of the year. The gimmick was worth $1.5 billion in 2012 — a newly minted American tradition anyone able to get online at work could honor.