Why is it called Black Friday?
Celebrated on The Friday following Thanksgiving
The most long-awaited day of the year for consumers is here. You can expect department stores and chain retailers to be full of special promotions. Black Friday discounts originated in the US, but the pre-Christmas sale has spread around the world. Black Friday is a sales promotion that takes place the day after the US holiday of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a major holiday in the United States. Canada and some parts of the Caribbean also have a version of the celebration. In the US, it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November and is an opportunity to express thanks for food and family.
The term Black Friday was apparently first used in September 1869. At the time, Jay Gould and James Fisk tried to corner the gold market at the New York Stock Exchange. However the conspiracy ended up going south, and the stock market crashed, bankrupting many. There is also a darker idea about the origins of Black Friday, that states that Southern plantation owners could buy slaves at a discounted price on the day after Thanksgiving. However this has no factual basis.
The true story behind Black Friday is actually that in the 1950s local police in Philadelphia started calling the day after Thanksgiving Black Friday in response to the crowds of people and huge traffic jams caused by the beginning of Christmas shopping season. The famous shopping day really took off in the 1990s and massively increased in the early 2000s. The term "in the black" means to be making money or to be at a profit. Therefore Black Friday is when stores can move from "in the red," meaning in debt, to "in the black."
Black Friday 2023: Activities, History, Dates & FAQs
The Friday following Thanksgiving is the most heavily patronized purchasing day of the year, so be ready to spend a considerable amount of money
The cash registers will clang on Black Friday, November 24. The occasion arrives when retailers experience a turnaround in their financial performance, transitioning from a state of “being in the red” to “being in the black.” The Friday following Thanksgiving is the most heavily patronized purchasing day of the year, so be ready to spend a considerable amount of money.
To begin with, Thanksgiving is a day to express gratitude for the bounties in one’s life. The following day, Black Friday, promotes the act of extravagant spending in order to satisfy one’s avarice. Greetings and delights to the formally commenced holiday season! However, there are numerous “official” and “unofficial” accounts of the origins of Black Friday, beginning with the nomenclature. The term “Black Friday” initially denoted September 24, 1869, the date on which a failed attempt to manipulate the gold markets in the United States caused widespread bankruptcies. Further disconcerting is the unverified rumor that slaveholders in the South obtained “good deals” when they purchased slaves on the Friday following Thanksgiving, which is precisely what “Black Friday” entailed.
The most widely known account of Black Friday, however, is that retailers celebrated the day when holiday consumers’ increased spending helped them turn a profit from being “in the red” to “in the black.” Although widely circulated, this narrative is also somewhat erroneous. What, then, is the true narrative of Black Friday? With that, we must travel to Philadelphia.
Black Friday: What It Means to Economists and to You
Black Friday refers to the day after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. It has become a day of special shopping deals and discounts, and is said to mark the beginning of the holiday shopping season.
The sales figures from Black Friday are often considered a sign of the overall economic health of the country and a way for economists to measure the confidence of the average American when it comes to their discretionary spending. Lower Black Friday sales figures are sometimes taken as a harbinger of slower economic growth. It's common for retailers to offer special promotions online and in-store on Black Friday. Many open their doors during the pre-dawn hours on Black Friday to attract customers or even keep their operations going well into the night on Thanksgiving. It's also become increasingly common for retailers to offer "Black Friday" deals well in advance of the actual day.
Really avid bargain hunters have been known to camp out overnight on Thanksgiving to secure a place in line at a favorite store; the most fanatical might skip Thanksgiving dinner altogether and head to whatever stores are open. The promotions usually continue through Sunday, and both brick-and-mortar stores and online retailers see a spike in sales.
Black Friday (shopping)
High discounts at a store during Black Friday
Black Friday is a colloquial term for the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in the United States. Many stores offer highly promoted sales at discounted prices and often open early, sometimes as early as midnight or even on Thanksgiving. Some stores' sales continue to Monday ("Cyber Monday") or for a week ("Cyber Week"). Black Friday has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States
For centuries, the adjective "black" has been applied to days upon which calamities occurred. Many events have been described as "Black Friday", although the most significant such event in American history was the Panic of 1869, which occurred when financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk took advantage of their connections with the Grant Administration in an attempt to corner the gold market. When President Grant learned of this manipulation, he ordered the Treasury to release a large supply of gold, which halted the run and caused prices to drop by 18%. Fortunes were made and lost in a single day, and the president's own brother-in-law, Abel Corbin, was ruined.
The earliest known use of "Black Friday" to refer to the day after Thanksgiving occurred in the journal, Factory Management and Maintenance, for November 1951, and again in 1952. Here it referred to the practice of workers calling in sick on the day after Thanksgiving, in order to have a four-day week-end. However, this use does not appear to have caught on. Around the same time, the terms "Black Friday" and "Black Saturday" came to be used by the police in Philadelphia and Rochester to describe the crowds and traffic congestion accompanying the start of the Christmas shopping season. In 1961, the city and merchants of Philadelphia attempted to improve conditions, and a public relations expert recommended rebranding the days "Big Friday" and "Big Saturday,” but these terms were quickly forgotten.
