Friends and family all gather around a nice Turkey dinner on the fourth Thursday of every November, but on the fourth Friday of every November, many more leave their homes in the early hours of the morning with their shopping bags in hand, ready to fight for the best deals of the season. An informal holiday the United States refers to as Black Friday.
The ‘holiday’ first originated in Philadelphia where the term was used to describe heavy traffic that surfaced the day after Thanksgiving. Years later it was recognized as the Black Friday we know today. The name comes from retail stores going from being in the red zone for profits—meaning they weren’t making a profit—to being in the profiting black zone.
In the early days, retail stores would open up as early as six in the morning and put out great deals for the consumers who dared to shop so early. Slowly the time these stores would open would be pushed to earlier and earlier hours like four and five in the morning. In 2011, several stores such as Target, Kohl’s, and Macy’s opened at midnight, taking the holiday to a whole new level.
In 2012, places such as Walmart opened their doors at 8pm, Thanksgiving night, thus making Black Friday even more glorified in the eyes of citizens.
Black Friday first made its appearance in the early 2000s, but has been known as the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005.
With such big crowds, small injuries have always been a part of black Friday shopping, but the first death wasn’t until 2008 where an employee of Walmart was trampled by a crowd of 2000 people. Crowds have since been handled and controlled much better.
Black Friday has been around for some time now, but with such a holiday, many controversies have surfaced, such as unreasonable working hours for staff, safety risks, and selling lower quality products made specifically for the holiday. These are all complaints that have been made, yet still every year consumers seem to spend time shopping at these retailers, buying the cheap products made because that’s just what happens every fourth Friday of November.