The History of Black Friday

I survived Black Friday. After my Thanksgiving meal last night, I didn't bother going to sleep so that I could go out at midnight for a shopping extravaganza. According to the American culture, I am inclined to experience it as least once in my life. Although I don't necessarily agree with this social decree and I think it's completely logical to stay home and sleep, something made me curious to see what all the fuss was about. However, I didn't go online searching for tips on where to go or where the hot items would be. I was more interested in the intentions and the underlying meaning of Black Friday. The more people that are involved in an event, the harder it is to keep it organized. If this is true, why do retailers all over the country form a shopping day to consolidate all their sales? And why do consumers validate this by participating in ridiculously urgent time frames? All other shopping deals are usually prompted by some sort of holiday weekend such as Memorial Day or Labor Day sales. Black Friday is not declared a national holiday and yet it is treated as one. These are all questions that led me to research the source of this event. It obviously didn't happen over night. Tracing Black Friday all the way back to the 1960s, I discovered that this day came to be like most traditions; it came to be gradually.


Black Friday Is Not the First
It seems that other countries had the idea to have a national shopping day before the United States did. A popular shopping day called "Boxing Day" is recognized by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth nations. Boxing Day currently takes place on  December 26th and has ties to the religious holiday St. Stephen's Day. Like a lot of holidays, there has been debate about the exact origins (especially when it can be traced as far back as the Roman Era). A common explanation is that it originated as an English tradition where wealthy landowners' gave their servants boxes containing gifts and allowed them to take the 26th off to visit their families. This was all implemented to make sure that the landowners' Christmases ran smoothly. The holiday evolved over time where it became tradition for all tradesmen to collect "Christmas boxes" of money and presents as thanks for quality service all year. The religious holiday of St. Stephen's Day celebrated the first Christian martyr by placing metal boxes outside churches for collecting special offerings. Since Boxing Day and St. Stephen's Day both lie on December 26th and involve boxes, they have been associated with each other, one being secular and the other religious. 


As you can see, Boxing Day came about gradually and is recognized by countries all over the world. Those wealthy landowners in England wanted their Christmas day to run smoothly and therefore created an incentive for their servants. Employers do this all the time now by offering increased pay to the employees who work on holidays. It is amazing to see this gradual development of the Boxing Day holiday. The concept of incentive turned into a nationwide and eventually global appreciation of vendors who offer good service all year. Many hard workers sacrifice their time and sweat to supply what the consumers demand. Although buying their products alone may seem enough, I also think that honoring them through a national holiday is appropriate.


Origin of the Term: "Black Friday"
Although Black Friday is not officially a national holiday like Boxing Day, it is regarded as one by many Americans. Some people revere the day and stay inside to avoid the commotion while others count down the days leading up to it. The actual term "Black Friday" was coined by Philadelphia Police Officers in 1966 due to their dislike of the shopping day after Thanksgiving. This day was known to officially open the Christmas shopping season and caused traffic on roads and on sidewalks. This obviously led to the Police regarding it with such a negative term. This term began to pick up in popularity over the years especially with retailers who didn't enjoy working all day amongst anxious shoppers.


However, many store owners were satisfied with their increase in sales due to Black Friday and therefore disliked the negative nickname. Randall E. Copeland, the president of Strawbridge & Clothier said:

"It sounds like the end of the world, and we really like the day. If anything it should be called 'Green Friday.'"

The term "Green Friday" didn't pick up, but a new explanation did. Many store owners explained that the reason the day was called Black Friday was actually because of old accounting practices. Accountants used to write negative numbers in red ink and positive numbers in black ink. Therefore, a profitable business was said to be "in the black." Since the day after Thanksgiving is a very profitable day for many stores, people attributed that name to these accounting practices. Although it does seem like a reasonable explanation, it was definitely not the true origin of the term Black Friday. This accounting explanation didn't arise until the 1980s while the Philadelphia usage began in 1966.

Black Friday Today
Black Friday has come a long way since 1966. The shopping day came to be mostly because the day after Thanksgiving gave people a reasonable amount of time to get ready for Christmas. This tradition picked up a  name and now is known all over as Black Friday. Although it may seem like it has always been popular, Black Friday wasn't the busiest shopping day until 2003. You have to give it props though, because it has held that title since. Black Friday is even beginning to spread to other countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom (It seems celebrating Boxing Day wasn't enough shopping for them!). This "holiday" has become a huge part of our culture and allows for great profits and deals. This aspect of mutual benefit is extremely important for not only this particular day, but all transactions. My experience definitely was quite enjoyable. I had a good time with family and friends, and some of us even got all of our holiday shopping done. I think that as long as people stay safe and be cautious of scams, then Black Friday can be beneficial.

If you want to read some more about the subject then check out this article about the five myths of Black Friday.

Happy shopping!