Here is a guest post for Black Friday from Brad's Deals. Enjoy!
History of Black Friday
You wouldn’t know it by the name alone, but Black Friday has demonstrated itself as the most profitable and fortuitous day of the year for retailers and consumers alike.
Black Friday finds its titular roots in the stock-market panic of 1864, which was later referenced by Philadelphia newspapers that used the term with a negative connotation to detail the annoying floods of customers at local retailers. But perhaps more famously, the trend of day-after-Thanksgiving shopping was initiated by President Franklin Roosevelt, who thought it best to push Thanksgiving up a week to give kick-start the economy with early holiday sales. To some, this was referred to with the cutesy label of “Franksgiving.”
Still, the term “Black Friday” did not stick in its modern money-happy context until the ‘90s, coined after retailers saw smudges of black ink noticeably protruding from their accounting books, which were indicators of mass profits.
Today, retailers capitalize on the day after Thanksgiving by putting out one-day sales with the knowledge that Black Friday has consistently been the most traffic-heavy and often most profitable sales day year after year, raking in billions of dollars. As such, clipping out fliers and scouring the Internet in search of the best sales around town has become a cultural staple of American consumerism during the holiday season.
Bloggers have made it a point to fancy themselves investigative journalists by digging around for early Black Friday sales ads and the tiniest tidbits they can get on where the iron will be hot. Some companies have taken advantage of the spread of digital buzz by leaking their own ads early to generate excitement among shoppers and, as such, put them “in the black.”
In recent years, the event has caused an uproar in sales communities upon seeing headlines of customers being trampled (sometimes to death) at store openings within Wal-Mart and Target stores. Openings have been known to occur as early as 4 a.m. and host as many as 2,000 anxious shoppers waiting in line for hours to beat out their fellow soccer moms for that last Tickle Me Elmo.
The history of Black Friday is one of many twists and turns that is sure to continue to evolve, especially as its younger cousin “Cyber Monday” continues to impress retailers that are just now catching on to the trend of online shopping.
This guest post was written by the team at Black Friday 2011. Visit www.blackfriday2011.com in order to find the latest in Black Friday Ads at top stores, including Macy’s, Costco, and Walmart Black Friday deals.
