Black Friday’s Toxic History

The glorious Friday after Thanksgiving is around the corner, and I know some of us are more excited to shop the sales than we are to feast on food and listen to our families talk for hours on end about politics, the weather, and our dating lives, all while counting the number of rips in our jeans… so exciting. However, every time I am waiting in lines out the door and shoving through crowds of people just to get my 45% off, I can’t help but wonder, “What am I doing, and why am I even here right now?”.  Well, ladies, I looked up the history of Black Friday and found the answer to my question, and it was way too interesting not to share this holiday’s toxic past with all of you. 

“Black Friday” was first used to refer to a financial catastrophe, more specifically, the crash of the U.S. gold market on September 24th, 1869 (completely unrelated to the chaotic post – Thanksgiving holiday shopping). On that Friday in September, it was exposed that the nation’s gold was purchased, as much as feasible, by two infamously cunning Wall Street financiers, Jim Fisk and Jay Gould. In an effort to drive up prices and sell it for astounding profit, the stock market went into a free fall, leaving many bankrupt. 

The history that brought the Black Friday tradition into existence dates back to 1950. The term was used by Philadelphia police to characterize the mayhem that occurred the day after Thanksgiving when masses of suburban shoppers and tourists invaded the city in anticipation of the annual Army-Navy football game. The increased traffic and crowds created enough chaos to give shoplifters the opportunity to steal goods and create even more of a conflict for Philadelphia PD. The name “Black Friday” became well known in the City of Philadelphia by 1961. 

Around the late 1980s, retailers decided to put an end to the negative connotation that surrounded Black Friday and found a way to restore it as a positive experience for both them and their customers. Black Friday was reinvented as a holiday centered around America’s stores having one day of exponential profit and switching from loss (in the red) to profit (in the black).

The way that I see it, we all must continue to buy lots of cute clothes and makeup for a lot cheaper and wait in lines outside of Target to buy TVs for 50% off because, technically…we are keeping a long-running history and tradition alive. Go us! I highly encourage all of you to join me in the contribution of transforming store sales from red to black this wonderful holiday season.