Black Friday, as we all know today is the start of the holiday shopping season. It is commemorated every year after Thanksgiving which marks the beginning of the Christmas season where millions of people are contemplating what to give to their loved ones.
Black Friday means tremendous discounts and stupendous deals from retailers, both in physical and online stores. It is indeed the busiest shopping day of the year where early shoppers line up in front of their favorite stores or some stay up late to be the first ones to avail discounts on online stores.
However, the old days of Black Friday are not all about this busy and bright occasion but have primitively coined from the worst financial crisis in American history.
In September 24, 1869, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, two crooked Wall Street financiers dared to stockpile all of the nation's gold which has led ultimately to financial panic and the collapse of the market. After this event was considered the 'in the red' days of businesses which operate in poor sales. Following an entire year of bankruptcy and financial loss, stores have supposedly "went into the black" a day after Thanksgiving when shoppers flocked to retail stores spending their money on discounted goods.
This common belief of how Black Friday began however is considered to be untrue. Some say that the term was first used in the 1950s when the Friday following Thanksgiving was "marked by disaster or misfortune" . This is when workers falsely call in sick, thus extending the holiday weekend.
The most accepted version of Black Friday's origin is 10 years later, in the early 1960s. Philadelphia police officers dreaded the Friday following Thanksgiving as they were compelled to not take a day off to deal with suburban shoppers and tourists flooding into the city in advance to witness the Army-Navy football game held on Saturday every year after Thanksgiving.
The phrase Black Friday was widely used in Philadelphia and was even tried to be changed to "Big Friday" to remove negative connotations, however was to no avail. It was in the 1980s when stores were able to turn the phrase into something that indicates a positive note, spreading the red-to-black history of Black Friday. It has been since described as the day that businesses began to turn a profit for the year and as the biggest shopping day after Thanksgiving as we know today.
It may have originated from the USA, but it has reached other countries across the globe. In Australia, Aussies were estimated to have spent a tremendous $8 billion over Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2021 as per the National Australia Bank. This year, Black Friday is on Nov 25, 2022 and is expected to be championed again by shopping patriots.
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