Why Is the Friday After Thanksgiving Called Black Friday
Why is the day after Thanksgiving called Black Friday?
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(WFRV) – Many know the day after Thanksgiving is referred to as 'Black Friday,' but why?
While some social media posts attribute the day's roots as dating back to the practice of selling off slaves the day after Thanksgiving, the Associated Press says that isn't the case.
Instead, the term 'Black Friday' is linked to a financial crash in the late 1880s.
According to the History channel, the term 'Black Friday' was associated with the collapse of the gold market:
For a century, the term Black Friday was associated with a 19th-century financial crisis. In 1869, two scheming Wall Street financiers bought as much gold as they could with the hopes of artificially driving up the price and selling at an astronomical profit. Instead, the gold market collapsed and took the stock market with it, bankrupting millions on Friday, September 24.
BLACK FRIDAY THROUGH THE YEARS
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Black Friday shoppers wait in line to enter an electronics store that opened at 5am in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas, Friday, Nov. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/LM Otero) -
People shop at Macy's department store during Black Friday shopping, Friday Nov. 29, 2019, in New York. Black Friday shoppers fought for parking spots and traveled cross-state to their favorite malls, kicking off a shortened shopping season that intensified the mad scramble between Thanksgiving and Christmas. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) -
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR WALMART – Walmart customers shop deals on toys in America's Best Toy Shop during Walmart's Black Friday store event on Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018 in Bentonville, Ark. (Gunnar Rathbun/AP Images for Walmart) -
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR WALMART – Holiday shoppers scored great deals at Walmart on Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017 in Bentonville, Ark. Color coded departments in Walmart stores helped customers locate top products across categories including electronics, toys, home, and apparel. (Gunnar Rathbun/AP Images for Walmart) -
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR WALMART – Excited customers shop Walmart's Black Friday event in Bentonville, AR, on Nov. 24, 2016. The retailer stocked its physical and digital aisles with the season's hottest items. (Gunnar Rathbun/AP Images for Walmart) -
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR MACY'S – Eager shoppers pour into the Macy's Herald Square flagship store upon store opening for "Black Friday" 2015 on Thursday, Nov. 26, 2015 in New York. On Thanksgiving at 6pm, most Macy's stores across the country opened its doors to thousands of early bird shoppers in search of sales, door buster deals and limited-time-offers. (Donald Traill/ AP Images for Macy's) -
Shoppers head into Target just after thei doors opened at midnight on Black Friday, Nov. 28, 2014, in South Portland, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) -
DISTRIBUTED FOR MACY'S – Shoppers stock up on Black Friday specials during the Macy's Lenox Black Friday store opening on Thursday, November 28, 2013 in Atlanta. (Paul Abell/AP Images for Macy's) -
Consumers shop early morning hours Friday, Nov. 23, 2012 at the Disney store at Glendale Galleria mall in Glendale, Calif. While stores typically open in the wee hours of the morning on the day after Thanksgiving known as Black Friday, openings have crept earlier and earlier over the past few years. Now, stores from Wal-Mart to Toys R Us are opening their doors on Thanksgiving evening, hoping Americans will be willing to shop soon after they finish their pumpkin pie. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) -
Shoppers wait in line outside a Best Buy store in Burbank, Calif., Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011. Black Friday began in earnest as Target, Abercrombie & Fitch and other stores opened their doors at midnight. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) -
Shoppers look at computers at Best Buy Friday, Nov. 26, 2010, in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak) -
About 600 shoppers are lined up at a Little Rock, Ark., Old Navy store Friday, Nov. 27, 2009. The nation's retailers are ushering in the traditional start of the holiday shopping season with expanded hours and deep discounts (AP Photo/Danny Johnston) -
Customers line up to get sale coupons at a Wal-Mart store in Secaucus, N.J., Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. (AP Photo/Mike Derer) -
"Black Friday" shoppers wait with their purchases near the exit of a Best Buy electronics store in the early morning hours Friday, Nov. 23, 2007 in Federal Way, Wash., near Seattle. More than 700 people waited in line, some since Thanksgiving Day, to snatch up bargains when the doors opened at 5:00 A.M. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
According to the Associated Press, 'Black Friday' wasn't used in relation to the shopping day after Thanksgiving until the 1960s when large crowds took to the streets of Philadelphia before the annual Army-Navy game to take advantage of sales at stores.
A 1975 Associated Press article quotes a sales manager at Gimbels department store who was watching a police officer try to control jaywalkers the day after Thanksgiving. That's why the bus drivers and cab drivers call today 'Black Friday. They think in terms of headaches it gives them," she said.
Philadelphia police officers had to try to control the crowds that day.
The Associated Press says the term has also been used by retailers who say Black Friday represents the time when they go from operating in the red to the black as sales boost profits.
According to History, Black Friday didn't take on its role as America's most popular holiday shopping day until the 1980s.
The Telegraph reports that, along with the United Kingdom and the US, the Black Friday we're familiar with has also become popular in other countries across the globe, including Brazil, India, France, Norway, Romania, and Germany.
Bustle says countries like Canada, Mexico, Australia, China, Japan, Russia, and Pakistan also celebrate Black Friday. Despite this, some will fly to the US to participate in Black Friday, according to The Atlantic.
While the coronavirus pandemic has altered the way many retailers are approaching Black Friday, shoppers are still heading to the stores, like they did in Green Bay.
And what about Cyber Monday?
According to Reader's Digest, the term 'Cyber Monday' was coined in 2005 by the senior vice president of research and strategic initiatives for the National Retail Foundation. The NRF reportedly noticed a spike in online revenue and traffic on the Monday after Thanksgiving.
This spike was believed to be caused by people shopping on their computers at work where the Internet was likely faster and their children couldn't see what was being bought.
Last year, Cyber Monday spending hit $7.8 billion in digital spending, according to Comscore.
It's hard to say how Black Friday and Cyber Monday will be affected by many retailers spreading out their deals and many consumers moving to online shopping due to COVID-19.
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Why Is the Friday After Thanksgiving Called Black Friday
Source: https://www.wearegreenbay.com/news/national/why-is-the-day-after-thanksgiving-called-black-friday/
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