Which City Is Most Clogged Up After Thanksgiving?

When it comes to eating large quantities of food, what was once a feeling of pure elation can have dire consequences mere hours later. When it comes to the aftermath of Thanksgiving Dinner, few can be pitied more than toilets across the United States on the following Friday. While “Black Friday” is mostly known for holiday sales deals and mass commerce, it’s also known as one of the busiest business days of the year for plumbing contractors. Dubbed as “Brown Friday” by many service providers, there’s little wonder as to why the calls and inquiries come flooding in. 

Investigating the trend further, Yelp analyzed data from users searching its site to determine which city has the most gruesome “Brown Friday” of all — using data points on searches such as “leaky faucets”, “drain cleaning”, and of course — "clogged toilets". What was discovered is that these types of searches skyrocked after Thanksgiving Day in 2022.

Diving into the data, Yelp was able to create a list of the most “Clogged Up” cities in the United States the day after Thanksgiving, with Portland Oregon topping  the list. The rankings are based on the percentage increase for plumbing-related searches/inquiries from the week after Thanksgiving Day compared to the week beforehand.

Top 10: 

10. Phoenix (+14 percent)

9. Milwaukee (+14 percent)

8. New Orleans (+15 percent)

7. Boston (+15 percent)

6. Sacramento, California (+15 percent)

5. Jacksonville, Florida (+18 percent)

4. Indianapolis (+21 percent)

3. Raleigh, North Carolina (+21 percent)

2. Virginia Beach, Virginia (+22 percent)

1. Portland (+23 percent)

Yelp’s complete list expands to the top 30. Check out the complete rankings here.