When and how did Black Friday originate?

Answer 1

The idea behind the term "Black Friday" is that on the day after Thanksgiving retail stores have enough sales to put them "in the black" for the year. "Black" refers to the accounting practice of recording losses in red and profits in black.

Answer 2

The term Black Friday was used in relation to the day after Thanksgiving in 1951. It was in M.J. Murphy's "Tips to Good Human Relations for Factory Executives." It evolved from there.

The day after Thanksgiving did not used to be commonly given as a paid holiday, so a good deal of people would call out sick to get a four day weekend. MJ Murphy stated it was a disease second only to the Bubonic Plague (also called the black plague). Murphy suggested it would be good relations to go ahead and just give this day off paid.

The term was later popularized by the Philadelphia police department and bus drivers. They used the term as because the day after Thanksgiving was a "dark day" for any officers or drivers that had to direct traffic or deal with the crowds. Everyone that had the day off was out shopping.

After the term became well known it started to be picked up as a retail gimmick. It truly became a commonplace phrase across the United States in 2003.

There are also some common myths about where the term came from. Some people refer to this as the phrase's "etymythology."

It is a common misconception that Black Friday relates to black people. There are myths related to Black Friday having to do with slaves being sold that day at discount rates, as well as blacks only being allowed to shop for Christmas on the day. According to the rumor busting website, Snopes, this is false.

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/thanksgiving/blackfriday.asp

The theory that the term "Black Friday" refers to stores moving from the "red" into the "black" did not develop until the 1980s. In accounting, in the red indicates a loss, and black a profit.

Answer 3

The term Black Friday originated in the 1960's. It is based on accounting principles where a black pen would indicated profit, and a red pen, loss. Moving from the red to black happened for retailers on the Friday after Thanksgiving just as the Christmas shopping season began.

Answer 4

The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Use of the term started before 1966 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black".

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day, most major retailers open extremely early, often at 4 a.m., or earlier, and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season, similar to Boxing Day sales in many British Commonwealth countries. Black Friday is not actually a holiday, but many non-retail employers give their employees the day off, increasing the number of potential shoppers. It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005, although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate, have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time.

Source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)

Answer 5

The term describes the proceeding day of Thanksgiving, which is always a Friday.

The "black" part derives from banking, wherein black indicates that you are making a profit instead of being in deficit of money. "To be in the black" as it's sometimes referred to as.

Answer 6

it came for people who like to shop.ha ha ha