Andrea Johnson, aj248@uakron.edu
We see it on the news. We see it in stores. People standing outside stores before sunrise. Lines wrapped from outside the doors. We see crowds of people shoving each other down the aisle and fighting over the new products that were marked down. What is the cause of this chaos? Well, it’s Thanksgiving 2.0, also known as Black Friday.
WHAT IS BLACK FRIDAY?
Black Friday is a popular shopping day in the United States that takes place on the day after Thanksgiving. Retailers offered special discounts to shoppers who took advantage of the sales. Because of this, Black Friday is often the day when shoppers begin their Christmas shopping.
THE HISTORY OF BLACK FRIDAY
The original term “Black Friday” had no connection to shopping. The term was used to describe a financial crisis in the United States, on Friday, September 24, 1869. Two scandalous Wall Street financiers, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk worked together to buy most of the U.S. gold to sell for massive profits. As a result, the gold markets crashed and the nation went into bankruptcy.
The term “Black Friday” was first used to refer to shopping dates in the 1960s. The Philadelphia police used the term to describe the chaos that took place the day after Thanksgiving. A large number of suburban tourists came into the city to begin their holiday shopping. To make matters worse, the annual Army-Navy football game was held that Saturday. The police were not allowed to take days off, and they had to work long-hour shifts dealing with traffic, accidents, and shoplifting.
Within a few years, Black Friday was well-known throughout the city of Philadelphia. City merchants wanted to change the day by naming it, “Big Friday” but were unsuccessful. It wasn’t until the 1980s that sale merchants created the concept “red to black,” in the red meaning in debt, and in the black meaning to turn a profit. Ultimately, merchants declared the day after Thanksgiving marked the day when American stores finally turned a profit.
OTHER DEDICATED SHOPPING HOLIDAYS
Following Black Friday, there are two shopping holidays called Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. Small Business Saturday takes place the Saturday after Black Friday. Small Business Saturday is a holiday created by American Express to encourage people to support small local businesses and communities nationwide. Similar to Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday encourages people to shop online. Marking Cyber Monday the biggest online shopping day of the year.
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