Why Do They Call It Black Friday?

When you hear the word "Black Friday", one thing that comes to mind will be the festival of shopping across the world, especially in countries like the United States. This is because the sale going on at the time is insane with huge price drops on various products.

It is to the extent that some people are willing to put up a fight to get their hands on what they want.

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But one thing that people may ask is how does the word "Black Friday" even exist and why do people call it "Black Friday"?

The Use of The Term Black Friday

The first time the word "Black Friday" was used was not on the crazy sales that have been going on but it was more on the financial crisis specifically the gold market that took a hit in the United States on 24 September 1869.

2 ruthless Wall Street investors were behind this namely Jay Gould and Jim Fisk. They both worked together by purchasing as much gold as they can in hope of selling it at a much higher price to gain a substantial amount of profit.

The event took place on Friday in September and this conspiracy resulted in the plunging of the stock market at that time, and many Wall Street investors became bankrupt. However, another side of the story that is being said regarding the tradition of the shopping spree after Thanksgiving is related to the seller.

If we were to look at the seller's perspective, especially after one year of operating at a loss (sometimes written as red), the seller will immediately gain huge profit(written in black) after Thanksgiving as many customers are in the holiday mood which means most of them will spend huge amounts on a shopping spree.

Regardless of most companies experiencing huge losses which can be seen in red or rather the other way around(seen in black) after doing their own calculations, the real version of the story behind the history of "Black Friday" has been confirmed officially but some might question whether the tradition is true or not.

The Myths of Black Friday

In these past few years, there have been a lot of myths going around giving a bad perception of this tradition. It was said that during the 1800s most of the farmers in South America were buying slaves at a discounted price after Thanksgiving.

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Despite some people having the wrong conception of the true story of "Black Friday" to the extent of boycotting these flash sales, these rumors are without any basis or proof and it is merely myths all along.

The Real Truth of Black Friday

In the 1950s, the police in Philadelphia were using the term Black Friday to describe the chaos that was happening the day after Thanksgiving. The event took place when the sports fanatic, as well as people from the countryside, will start flooding into the city before the American Football match starts.

It is an annual tradition where the army will go against the navy and it will always be held on Saturday each year. Due to this, most police in Philadelphia are forced to work overtime and not get a day off to be on guard duty.

Not just that, but the police must also control the heavy traffic and handle cases like theft and pickpocketing as some will take advantage of the situation. By 1961, the term Black Friday was widely used in Philadelphia and some of the locals weren't happy about it and they definitely try to change it to Big Friday to remove all the negative thoughts people were having on Black Friday.

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Seems like the word definitely did not change and it is still being used today.

Negative to a Better Perception

However, in the late 1980s, most businesses found a way to change people's perception regarding Black Friday, and changing it will reflect the positivity of their kindness to their customers.

The concept is pretty simple in that they use the color black and red as a theme for the festive sale during the holidays. It turns out this simple concept really paid off and ultimately remove all the misconceptions and negativity on Black Friday in Philadelphia.

Ever since then, the single-day event suddenly turns into a 4-day shopping spree and it has also manifested in other types of festivals such as Cyber Monday which happens on the following Monday. Most shops started to open early on Friday since many dedicated shoppers will be waiting in line in front of the shops to get their hands on insanely discounted items.

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