Black Friday, now synonymous with deep discounts and shopping frenzy, has a history as dramatic as the deals it inspires.
The popular belief is that the name refers to retailers transitioning from financial losses (“in the red”) to profits (“in the black”) thanks to post-Thanksgiving spending.
While this explanation is widely embraced, it overlooks the chaotic origins of the term in 1960s Philadelphia, reported the New York Post.
At the time, the city’s police coined “Black Friday” to describe the mayhem caused by suburban shoppers and tourists crowding downtown after Thanksgiving. Many came early for the Army-Navy football game, creating traffic gridlock and shoplifting sprees that stretched the police force thin. Officers, forced to work extra-long shifts, used the term to capture the frustration of the day.
Retailers, unhappy with the negative connotation, tried to rename it “Big Friday,” but the new moniker didn’t stick.
By the 1980s, savvy marketers had embraced “Black Friday” and rebranded it with the narrative of retailers achieving profit, a much rosier spin. This reinterpretation helped turn the chaotic day into a shopping holiday.
Since then, Black Friday has exploded into a global phenomenon, with retailers rolling out major discounts to draw crowds.
From electronics to toys, shoppers now associate the day with snagging deals rather than chaotic downtown scenes. The rise of e-commerce has further fueled the event, with online sales eclipsing in-store bargains in recent years.
In addition to Black Friday, other retail events like Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday have cropped up, extending the holiday shopping frenzy.
Retail giants such as Amazon and Target even launch early promotions, offering steep discounts as early as October. These extended sales ensure that Black Friday’s influence stretches well beyond a single day.
What started as a police term for crowd chaos has become a celebration of consumerism. Black Friday is no longer just a day but the centerpiece of a shopping season that reshapes how Americans spend and save.
This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence.