I feel like I’ve just woken up after a few years of sleep. Seemingly all of the sudden (to me, anyway), everyone calls the Friday after Thanksgiving “Black Friday”. I could swear I never heard it called that last year. I know it’s always been the biggest shopping day, and consequently a madhouse for all who dare to venture out, but it’s also the biggest payday for the retailers. So when did it start being called “Black Friday”, and why?
Doesn’t answer the question, but the reason it’s called Black Friday is becaused it’s the day that puts many retail businesses in the black (or at least the day that begins the season that does). I’ll take a look for the origins.
Wiki:
The “in the black” came later than the initial traffic related nickname apparently.
Well, like a lot of events, I’d say the coverage and hype of Black Friday is a result of 24 hour news channels and business channels. Since the short Thanksgiving week is usually short on hard news, Black Friday and news reports on “The Worst Christmas ever” became common.
Sampiro’s got it right. I’ve heard it used for several years by retail-working friends who dread and loathe that day. I think it’s only been the past couple-to-three years when the term started getting applied in public without a pejorative sense to it.
I’ve actually witnessed fights on Black Friday, usually on limited quantity leader items (“I WAS HERE FIRST!” “WELL I GOT TO IT FIRST!”). I’ve also witnessed more than a few wage slave clerks getting chewed out like they just ran over someone’s kid. I’m guessing that there are fights all over the country that day.
I refuse to attend Black Friday sales anymore, not just because of the mobs but because the doorbuster specials are rarely available if you don’t- literally- get there at 2:00 a.m. and wait in line for 6 hours, which I’m just not going to do, and the Internet’s a helluva lot easier and more often than not better prices.
“Only”? That means it’s been around for almost my whole life.
This is better; since I’ve never been to Philadelphia, I can be forgiven for not having heard it for the first quarter of my life.
Now this one I like. I’ve been completely out of touch for only a few years.
It’s only been in the last few years that it has been used as a marketing designation. In fact, I was quite stunned to see our company’s website using it as a designation like Columbus Day or Veteran’s day…Come in For Our Black Friday Specials! What was once the inside-joke reference has become the Official Name Of The Day, apparently. It’s no longer the After-Thanksgiving Sale. Now the public knows it is their responsibility to spend enough to get us out of the red! Today! Now! Open Your Wallet!
I worked at a Ruby Tuesday’s in a mall 20 years ago when I was in college and I heard the term Black Friday then.
You can find lists all over the Internet now, but wasn’t there a time when it was considered illegal to post the sales on Black Friday?
Roadfood writes:
> I know it’s always been the biggest shopping day . . .
Actually, it’s not. The biggest shopping day is usually the Saturday before Christmas:
There’s something subtle and rather cynical, though, about how we came to the current belief that we acquired “Black Friday” because it puts merchant ledger books “back in the black.”
Philadelphia news sources in the 1980sstrongly hint that area merchants, wanting to encourage shoppers to descend upon the city and suburban malls, downplayed the already existing, tongue-in-cheek “Black/disaster/frenzy” association (used readily by local cops, transit workers, and cabbies) by providing a more upbeat “black ink” explanation. It was this concerted rehabilitative effort (possibly most strongly put forth by the Philadelphia Center City Association of Proprietors) to remove the negative connotation of “black” and reassure more skittish, crowd-hating shoppers that caused the current understanding of how “Black Friday” originated.
– Tammi Terrell
2006 Black Friday thread.
And a 2002 thread Black Friday": How long has it been called that? with some of Tammi Terrell’s earliest etymological detective work.
Why would it be shorter on hard news than any other weekend? I mean the Mumbai terrorist attacks dominated the news cycle.
Because only statistically unlikely events would occur on that date.
News is very often the result of what government does, and the American government at all levels tends to make very little news over Thanksgiving weekend. No major laws or decisions or announcements or findings.
Other than Mumbai, what was on the news the past couple of days? Cameras in malls. Health stories. Feel-good family stories. But no hard news at all.