As families across the United States gather to celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, one thing will be on the mind of savvy, deal-hunting shoppers more than turkey, parade floats, football, or even pumpkin pie–Black Friday.
Malls and retail centers of all sizes and specialties will soon be swarmed from corner to corner with people–many who lined up at the entrance well before the stroke of midnight–looking to snag the best deals of the year on nearly every product imaginable.
From an economics standpoint, Black Friday is one of the most important days of the year, as it marks the unofficial start of the busy holiday shopping season. The origin of the term “Black Friday,” however, is not entirely straightforward. We’ve compiled a list of some of the 5 most common explanations for how this infamously chaotic day got its name.
- As far back as the 17th century, students used the term Black Friday as part of schoolyard slang to refer to exam days. As such, the day was “characterized by tragic or disastrous events; causing despair or pessimism,” according to one definition from the Oxford Dictionaries.
- When referring to a specific day, “black” has historically been used as a general term marking a collapse in prices. For example, Friday 24 September, 1869 is also referred to as Black Friday. On this day, President Ulysses S. Grant released all government-held gold for sale in order to curb the efforts of those trying to corner the country’s gold market. As a result, the price of gold plummeted and a stock market panic was created. In addition, the Wall Street Crash on Tuesday, 29 October, 1929–also referred to as Black Tuesday–ultimately caused the Great Depression.
- One of the most prevalent explanations of the name Black Friday is that it refers to the first day of the year businesses make a profit, otherwise known as being “in the black” as opposed to “in the red.” In traditional, handwritten bookkeeping practices, an account’s credit was written in black ink, and debit was written in red.
- In Philadelphia in the 1960s, the day after Thanksgiving came to be known as Black Friday in reference to the heavy traffic congestion that shoppers caused as they traveled to the city’s retail centers. As a result, public transportation workers and police officers faced difficulties managing the large crowds, and often worked long hours.
- Retailers nationwide began turning Black Friday into the holiday shopping extravaganza it is today during the 1980s, offering steep discounts as a way to draw in crowds of eager Americans–and their wallets. Since then, Black Friday has continued to evolve past a single day of sales, spurring the creation and increasing popularity of Brown Thursday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday.
No matter the truest origin of the term Black Friday, the day continues to attract massive crowds of consumers each year, spurring a positive boost for our nation’s economy. In fact, it is estimated that 137.4 million people plan to shop this weekend, totaling 59% of all Americans!
Are you planning to shop on Black Friday this year?
Featured image:Boxing Day at the Toronto Eaton Centre by 松林 L. CC-BY-2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Nice piece, but don’t forget that the “handwritten bookkeeping practice” didn’t appear until well after police officers had dubbed the day “Black Friday (because of long hours working in difficult conditions). When Philadelphia retailers, displeased with the negative associations of “Black Friday,” realized the buying public wouldn’t go for “Big Friday” (an alternate, more cheerful invention), they decided to rebrand the name “Black Friday,” creating an alternate (and false) explanation rooted in old bookkeeping practices. It’s this faux etymology that seems to have stuck.