With Black Friday oh so soon, the very meaning of Thanksgiving often gets pushed aside as we scramble for the credit cards after dinner to beat the lines at the stores because after all, Black Friday means getting ready as early as Thursday night or even Thursday evening. While it’s fun to splurge on others and ourselves, the irony of it being immediately after a day dedicated to being thankful for what we have has been pointed out. We know Black Friday as the national shopping day with low low sales, chaotic racing to get their first, and loads of bags on both arms. But how did this day come about? What started this tradition that has now become such an iconic American symbol for the start of the holidays?
Image via CNN.
Originally, “Black Friday” was a term in 1896 describing a day when a railroad developer and stockbroker created an economic expansion and contraction (boom-and-bust) in gold prices, which fell 20%, leading to a stock market crash. Commodity prices subsequently dropped by 50%. After this incident, it was soon forgotten.
However, police officers revived the phrase in the early 1960s to describe the chaos that occurred in Philadelphia when a massive amount of tourists poured into the city to begin their holiday shopping. The officers were then having to double down on duty as traffic jams, shoplifting, and various other issues took place. The “Black Friday” term started to catch on in Philly with retailers attempting to rephrase it as “Big Friday” to sound less dark (it didn’t catch on). In the 1980s, retailers started spreading the “red-to-black” profit narrative as a way to put a positive twist on the negative-sounding “Black Friday”. This day signified the day retailers started turning profits on the biggest and busiest shopping day of the year (although the largest sales were seen on the Saturday before Christmas).
Nowadays, the roots of the day have long been forgotten. In fact, Black Friday has morphed into multiple days with Small Business Saturday/Sunday and even online with Cyber Monday. Stores started to open earlier to the point where families can now go out right after Thanksgiving dinner. Something interesting to note is that there is a Giving Tuesday that started in 2012 to combat the massive amount of spending we do the week of Thanksgiving. People give charitable donations on this day set to remind us to be generous in more ways than one.
The new tradition on Tuesdays is definitely a pick-me-up after a week of intense shopping (or ignoring those clearance ads if you’re trying to curve your spending habit).
This blog post is part of the CIMA Law Group blog. If you are located in Arizona and are seeking legal services, CIMA Law Group specializes in Immigration Law, Criminal Defense, Personal Injury, and Government Relations.
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