The retail bonanza known as Black Friday is now an integral part of many Thanksgiving celebrations but this holiday tradition has darker roots than the shopping frenzy it alludes to.
First recorded use of the term "Black Friday" was employed not to holiday shopping but to
financial crisis:
Specifically, the crash of the U.S gold market on
September 24, 1869
Two notoriously ruthless financiers,
Jay Gould and
Jim Fisk plotted to buy up as much as they could of the nation's gold hoping to drive the price sky-high and then sell it for astonishing profits.
It was on that Friday in
September that the conspiracy finally unraveled, sending the stock market into free- fall and bankrupting everyone from Wall Street barons to farmers.
The popular story behind the post-Thanksgiving shopping-related Black Friday tradition links to its retailers.
After an entire year of operating at a loss
in the red , stores would supposedly earn a profit went
into the black on the day following the Thanksgiving because holiday shoppers blew so much money on discounted merchandise.
Though it's true that retail companies used to record losses in red and profits in black when doing their accounting,
this version of Black Friday's origin is the officially sanctioned-but inaccurate story behind the tradition.
Black Friday started in the 1950s in Philadelphia.
The true story behind Black Friday, however, is not as sunny as retailers might have you believe.
Back in the 1950s, police in the city of Philadelphia used the term to describe the chaos that ensued on the day after Thanksgiving, when hordes of suburban shoppers and tourists flooded into the city in advance of the big Army-Navy football game held on that Saturday every year. Not only would Philly cops not be able to take the day off, but they would have to work extra-long shifts dealing with the additional crowds and traffic. Shoplifters would also take advantage of the bedlam in stores to make off with merchandise, adding to the law enforcement headache.
In 1961, the idea of re-branding the holiday to "Big Friday" was floated so that one of the biggest days in shopping wouldn't carry a negative connotation. But that didn't catch on.
The Black Friday story stuck, and pretty soon the term’s darker roots in Philadelphia were largely forgotten. Since then, the one-day sales bonanza has morphed into a four-day event, and spawned other “retail holidays” such as Small Business Saturday/Sunday and Cyber Monday. Stores started opening earlier and earlier on that Friday, and now the most dedicated shoppers can head out right after their Thanksgiving meal.
References:
1. https://www.history.com
2. https://edition.cnn.com
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