Why Do They Call It Black Friday?

Do you know what I don’t do on Black Friday?

Leave the house.

That’s my tradition, and I’m sticking to it. It’s just too peopley out there.

On top of my propensity to avoid hordes of grumpy shoppers, I like to sleep. Black Friday generally involves getting up early to get the best deal. As much as I like to save a few dollars, there isn’t a Walmart deal ever conceived that can entice me to go shopping at 5 a.m.

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The truth is I have zero desire to go out at the crack of dawn, fight traffic, elbow through a smelly mass of humanity to get into a retail store, risk a fistfight over the last discounted laptop on the shelf, stand in a long line to pay for said discounted laptop, fight traffic some more and then go home exhausted only to find out somebody broke my el-cheapo laptop during the melee.

Now, my mom and grandmother — they did some serious Black Friday shopping back in the day. I think they crammed almost all of their Christmas shopping into one exhausting day. But that was a different era. I’ve been seeing “Black Friday” deals for weeks. I have to admit, from a nostalgia standpoint, I kind of miss Black Friday being, well, Black Friday. Not Black November and beyond.

It’s kind of a function of Christmas mission creep, isn’t it? I’m not going to lie — it annoys me a little. I love Thanksgiving, and it irks me that we’re basically just phasing it out. You’ve heard of the “war on Christmas?” Well, it can’t end until it ends Christmas ends illegal occupation of November. At least the first three weeks of November. I’m OK with Christmas stuff after Thanksgiving. In fact, today is the day I start listening to Christmas music, and the tree will probably go up this weekend.

Anyway, why do they call it Black Friday?

Because it’s an awful day.

I’m not kidding.

I can confirm this from experience. I worked part-time at Toys R Us back in the mid-90s when I was trying to make a living as a musician. Remember the Power Ranger craze? I personally helped break up a physical altercation between two women in a Toys R Us aisle. They were fighting over the last of that season’s must-have Ranger.

Now, you have probably heard that they call it Black Friday because it was traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year, and sales on the day after Thanksgiving typically got retailers out of “the red” and into “the black” financially for the first time during the year. But this is pretty much propaganda put out by the retail industry because they didn’t want negative connotations attached to what was once one of the most important days of the year.

Obviously, the importance of Black Friday has waned. These days, it’s really more about the entire holiday shopping season, running from October through the end of the year. In fact, as I understand it, black Friday isn’t even the busiest shopping day. The Saturday before Christmas is generally the biggest sales day of the year for retailers.

So, why is it really called Black Friday?

Interestingly, the first reference to the “getting out of the red” explanation for Black Friday anybody can find was in the Philadelphia Enquirer in 1981.

I was Googling to confirm this and ran across a 1985 Philadelphia Inquirer story that I found kind of amusing. It highlights how people in the retail sector were desperately trying to rebrand Black Friday.

“The caller wanted to know about retail sales at Hess’s department store in Allentown on Black Friday.  But the question touched a sensitive nerve for Irwin Greenberg, chairman of the chain. ‘That’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard,’ snapped Greenberg. ‘Retail sales?’ ‘No!’ he steamed, ‘The term Black Friday. Black Friday is a phrase that’s sinful, and it’s disgusting,’ a perturbed Greenberg said. ‘Why would anyone call a day, when everyone is happy and has smiles on their faces, Black Friday?’ he asked.”

I don’t think that dude was ever actually in one of his stores on Black Friday. Based on my experience working at Toys R Us, people were not typically happy and smiling.

Anyway, the earliest known use of “Black Friday” predates the Enquirer article by three decades. The term was used in the journal Factory Management and Maintenance in 1951, referring to workers calling in sick the day after Thanksgiving. At about the same time, cops in Philadelphia started using Black Friday and Black Saturday to describe the crowds and traffic congestion as the Christmas shopping season kicked off the weekend after Thanksgiving.

You’ll notice Philly keeps popping up here. Now, no disrespect to any Philly folks, but I’ve been in your city, and I understand why.

In 1961, a public relations expert recommended rebranding the days “Big Friday” and “Big Saturday.” That went nowhere. The New York Times started using Black Friday to describe the busiest shopping and traffic day in 1975.

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You’ll notice traffic is a recurring theme here. Combine that with long lines, flustered shoppers, and surly clerks, and you have a recipe for unpleasantness.

So, there ya go. It’s Black Friday because it’s an awful day.

Well, anyway, enjoy Black Friday in whatever manner you choose. If you do go out, I’ll remember you as you were. And a friendly reminder — be considerate of your fellow shoppers. Say you’re sorry as you shove people out of the way. And make sure you turn your phone horizontally before you video any Black Friday fist-fights!

And if you’re like me and don’t want to go out, you could sit at your desk and buy your loved ones the gift of money. No. Not the worthless paper printed by the government. I’m talking about gold and silver! Check out our Black Friday Specials.