I don’t know about you but I love Black Friday although it’s been a couple years since I’ve been able to go Black Friday Shopping because everyone I know works and I don’t have a way to the store. Although would you like to Black Friday Shopping with me next year?
Charlie should be #driiving then. I might be able to get Charlie to go. Like me Charlie loves finding deals and saving money. It would be a great way for Charlie to get his #Christmas shopping done instead of shopping online like he plans on doing this year.
As a reminder Black Friday will have cash registers ringing sales up on November 29th. Black Friday is the day of the year when retailers finally start generating profit, thus going from “being in the red” to “being in the black.” Get out your pocketbook and prepare to shell out some cash, because the Friday after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year! We wouldn’t want you to miss out on those sales everyone will be hosting.
But first, there’s Thanksgiving a day to be grateful for all life’s blessings. The next day, Black Friday, encourages you to give way to your greed by spending as much money as possible. Welcome to the official start of the holiday season! But the story of Black Friday is full of “official” and unofficial versions of its origins, starting with the name.
Black Friday originally referred to September 24th,1869 when a scheme to manipulate America’s gold markets backfired resulting in numerous bankruptcies across the Country. Even more troubling is the unsubstantiated story that Southern Slave owners allegedly got a “good deal” if they bought Slaves on the Friday after Thanksgiving making it a “Black Friday,” indeed!
But, the story that’s most well-known about Black Friday is that retailers marked the day when filled coffers from holiday shoppers helped businesses go from being “in the red” to “in the black.” Although popular, this story is also not quite accurate. What is the actual story of Black Friday? We have to go to Philadelphia for that.
Philadelphia cops complained about “Black Friday” when they were stuck working off days and overtime the day after Thanksgiving. Packed downtown streets with hordes of shoppers, tourists, and fans in town for the next day’s Army-Navy game, meant that Black Friday was a haven for shoplifters as well as a crowd-controlling nightmare for the police.
Unfortunately, the idea that Black Friday was also a retailers’ headache did not entice Philly’s shoppers. By 1961, Philadelphia retailers decided “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” turning a negative into a positive by way of reinvention. In the 1980s, “Black Friday” became synonymous as a day for big deals in national retail. Today, Black Friday invites you to shop ‘til you drop for the best bargains of the year.
Why People Love Black Friday
For some people Black Friday may be the holiday we love to hate, but the deals are undeniably awesome. Even those of us who hate to shop are willing to step outside of our comfort zone on Black Friday, if it means we get that TV for 75% off!
Black Friday is an integral part of the American experience participation in the Black Friday madness is a rite of passage for all Americans. Doorbusters, camping out in front of the store in the wee hours of the morning, long lines, shouting matches they’re are all a part of the American Black Friday experience.
For many Americans, Black Friday isn’t so much about the shopping as the tradition of getting up before the Sun rises and doing a fun activity together with friends or family members and later, it’s totally about the shopping!
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
