Once upon a time, the term Black Friday was coined, and loosely accepted, as the day that the U.S. retail community slid into the black, turning a profit for the year. It was a loose interpretation of an otherwise impossible number to gauge; it was equally loosely adhered to by the retail community. After all, the question went, who can accurately gauge the day when red turned to black on the retail calendar?

Times have changed — but not so much. Retailing in America has grabbed hold of the slogan, even as it has changed both the meaning and interpretation of the Black Friday message. Today, with retailing’s unique ability to transform one message into another, it has come to mean, for consumers, the day the pre-holiday sales kick off. More than kick off, it is the day they explode.

The result has been dramatic. Who among the U.S. shopping public hasn’t rushed to his or her favorite store to cash in on Black Friday bargains “while they last.” Even though these same consumers know, deep down, they will last as long as the demand for bargains lasts. Which means forever.

Today, Black Friday, in its newer definition, has morphed into a range of sales events, all harnessed to convince the consumer that pre-holiday events are available for the taking. There’s Cyber Monday, which is designed to encourage consumers to shop online for bargains they may be missing at the store. There are events to attract customers to local retailers as well as national favorites. In short, it has all come together in a cascade of events designed to put consumers in the driver’s seat.

One wonders, meanwhile, if retailers haven’t done themselves a disservice in their rush to transform a meaningless slogan into a pre-Christmas bonanza for shoppers. After all, it has long been a given that shoppers know the score. They understand, certainly, what promotions do and how they are designed to work. They grasp as well that the word “bargain” is just that, a word. Are there deals to be had for the intrepid consumer who sets her alarm for 6:00 a.m. so she can rush to the store before the really great bargains have been snapped up? Don’t they know that the really great bargains exist primarily in the minds of these same women? Don’t they know that there are few really great bargains?

Of course they do.

American consumers are masters of the art of shopping. They know when to hold up and when to fold up. They know that retailers are playing with them, daring them to search the stores for Black Friday bargains, sometimes in vain, often in confusion, always in anticipation.

U.S. retailers, in the main, enjoy a solid reputation with the American buying public. If there’s seldom a free lunch at the nearest Walmart or Target or Costco or Sam’s, there are often solid, value-based reasons to shop, and shop some more.

The point here is not necessarily to doubt the veracity of the U.S. retailer. Rather, it is to raise a valid question: Do American consumers understand that, in all probability, Black Friday is a thoughtfully conceived and well-executed promotional campaign designed to give consumers the illusion that the money is under the hat in the middle?

American consumers truly don’t need such artificial inducements to shop. The genuine inducements — real value for the dollar in a pleasant environment in which they are welcomed by thoughtful, caring staffers — are all they have ever really needed — or wanted.