Black Friday : Meaning and History
The truth about Black Friday’s origins, however, is not as rosy as some companies would have you imagine.
What is Black Friday?
After Thanksgiving, there is a sales weekend known as Black Friday, which is known for post-Thanksgiving and early-Christmas shopping. During this period, consumers might find stores offering all over America tempting deals. However, retailers all around the world, including India, have recently embraced the custom. United States for more than two centuries.
After Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a proclamation in 1942, it started to be observed yearly on the fourth Thursday of November. However, it wasn’t until the middle of the 20th century that Black Friday started to be connected to Thanksgiving. Black Friday is regarded as a representation of the collapse of the US gold market in 1869. It was the day that a market crash brought on by falling gold prices occurred, with long-lasting consequences for the US economy.
Why is it called Black Friday?
The phrase “Black Friday” was first used by Philadelphia police officers to identify the civil unrest that occurred when a large number of suburban travellers arrived in the city to start their holiday shopping and, in some years, to join the annual Army-Navy football game on Saturday in the early 1960s. The phrase’s more precise meaning first became clear at this point.
The police had to work longer shifts than usual due to the large number of people because of shoplifting, traffic jams, accidents, and other issues.
It wasn’t until late 1980s, when companies started to market the fantasy of red-to-black profits, that the term “Black Friday” came to be commonly used to describe a surge in retail sales. According to statistics, Black Friday is both the busiest shopping day in the US and the first day of the year that stores start turning a profit. Actually, most stores reported that the Saturday before Christmas was their busiest shopping day.
Black Friday originally has another meaning that has nothing to do with shopping. Wall Street financiers Jay Gould and Jim Fisk attempted to monopolize the nation’s gold market in 1869 in an effort to raise rates by buying as much gold as they could at the New York Gold Exchange. On Friday, September 24, President Ulysses S. Grant’s intervention caused their scheme to fall apart. Immediately following the stock market collapse, hundreds of Americans declared bankruptcy.
The History Behind ‘Black Friday’
The truth about Black Friday’s origins, however, is not as rosy as some companies would have you imagine. The term was first used by police in Philadelphia to describe the chaos that broke out the day after Thanksgiving when crowds of suburban shoppers and tourists descended on the city in anticipation of the important Army-Navy football game that was played on that Saturday every year.
Police officers in Philadelphia were not only unable to take the day off, but they also had to put in extra-long shifts to deal with the increased traffic and crowds. The chaos in stores was also used by shoplifters, who stole goods and made a nuisance for law authorities.
By 1961, “Black Friday” had become popular in Philadelphia to the point that city boosters and business owners unsuccessfully wanted to rename the holiday “Big Friday” to lessen its negative connotations. However, it took a long time for the phrase to catch on across the nation; in fact, it wasn’t widely used until 1985. However, some time in the late 1980s, retailers discovered a method to reimagine Black Friday and make it something that reflected well on them and their clients rather than unfavourably.
The idea that the day after Thanksgiving was the moment when America’s stores finally made a profit as a result of this is known as the “red to black” interpretation of the holiday.
The Black Friday narrative became well-known, and the term’s sinister beginnings in Philadelphia were quickly mostly forgotten. Since then, the one-day sales extravaganza has grown into a four-day affair and inspired the creation of other “retail holidays”. On that Friday, stores began to open earlier and earlier, and as a result, the most devoted consumers can now leave soon after their Thanksgiving feast.
