These Theories About How Black Friday Got Started Will Surprise You
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As consumers across the country rev up for Thanksgiving, many are also prepping for one of the biggest shopping holidays of the year: Black Friday. But have you ever wondered what’s behind the name? There are a range of theories about the origins of the term for the Friday that falls after Thanksgiving. Here, FN shares some of the most popular.
Why Is it Called Black Friday?
The first record of the term”Black Friday” is more dark in nature. According to the History Channel, the term was first used in 1869, to signify the day when two financial investors drove up the price of gold, leading to the U.S. gold and stock market crashing bankrupting millions on Sept. 24.
The term and the negative connotation associated with Black Friday would first be connected to Thanksgiving when, in the early 20th century, factory workers would fail to show up for work the Friday after the holiday. Business owners claimed the day ruined production and impacted the economy.
It wasn’t until the late 20th century, when a January 1966 article in The American Philatelist by stamp dealer Martin L. Apfelbaum, EVP of Earl P.L. Apfelbaum, Inc., discussed the name the Philadephia city police department gave the day. According to the article, the day between Thanksgiving and the annual Army versus Navy football game brought significant traffic and crowded sidewalks as holiday shoppers hit the stores looking to score on deals.
Seeing an opportunity to capitalize on the traffic, businesses in the city attempted to change the term from Black Friday to Big Friday to help shake the negative associations the name brought to the shopping experience. But rebranding failed.
Black Friday wouldn’t become the shopping holiday most people know and love until the 1980s when stores would go from an operating loss or “in the red” to finally earning a profit or being “in the black.” This closer association with retail earnings led businesses to use Black Friday as an opportunity to turn a profit, thus birthing America’s modern shopping holiday.
How Black Friday Became Black November
These days, retailers have expanded the actual timing of the holiday over a series of multiple days to avoid injuries and even deaths from the frenzy of shopping crowds. In 2008, according to The New York Times, a Walmart employee was trampled to death at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y., during the shopping holiday.
Black Friday was supposed to be the start of the holiday shopping calendar, and Dec. 24 was initially intended to mark the end of the season. The original retail calendar has slowly become obsolete, with more stores stretching out the deals available to eager shoppers.
Stores have also started promoting pre-Black Friday sales and events throughout November and the months before to take some of the wind out of actual Black Friday sales and help them to better capitalize on the retail opportunity. The Black Friday holiday has even expanded to include the whole weekend. Shoppers now have access to deals on Saturday with Small Business Saturday, a day that encourages consumers to hit their local businesses for the latest sales instead of big box retailers.
Until 2020, many companies would opted to start their Black Friday doorbusters on Thanksgiving Day. But since the COVID-19 pandemic retail chains like Target, Walmart and Dicks’ Sporting Goods have opted to close stores on Thanksgiving to give workers the day off. In 2022, REI notably made the decision to permanently close its stores every year on Black Friday after closing its doors on Black Friday every year since 2015. Plus, as more consumers opt to do their holiday shopping online, it has become less important to keep stores open during the entire holiday period.
Black Friday x Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday, the online equivalent of Black Friday, is also one of the biggest online shopping days of the year.
The term Cyber Monday was coined in 2005 by Ellen Davis of The National Retail Federation; it began because, statistically, the Monday after Thanksgiving was one of the biggest online shopping days of the year.
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