Black Friday-what does it mean?

Black Friday

Black Friday, is all we are hearing about so I decided to do some research and see what Black Friday really is/was or what the true meaning of it really is.

I know you are going to ask what it has to do with my business (anounce.com) printers or printing supplies and the short answer is absolutely nothing. However, the long answer is, if it means a sale or two for my business then here goes.

So here is what I found.

The first recorded use of the term “Black Friday” was applied not to holiday shopping but to a financial crisis on September 24, 1869. Two notoriously ruthless Wall Street financiers, worked together to buy up as much gold as they could, in hopes to drive gold prices sky-high and then sell it for a huge profits. On that Friday in September, the conspiracy finally unraveled, sending the stock market into free-fall and bankrupting everyone from Wall Street barons to farmers.

"The most commonly repeated story behind the post-Thanksgiving shopping-related Black Friday tradition links it to retailers. As the story goes, after an entire year of operating at a loss (“in the red”) stores would supposedly earn a profit (“went into the black”) on the day after Thanksgiving, because holiday shoppers blew so much money on discounted merchandise. Though it’s true that retail companies used to record losses in red and profits in black when doing their accounting, this version of Black Friday’s origin is the officially sanctioned—but inaccurate—story behind the tradition.”

The true story behind Black Friday, however, is not as sunny as retailers might have you believe. Back in the 1950s, police in the city of Philadelphia used the term BLACK FRIDAY to describe what would happen on the day after Thanksgiving. The city would be flooded with tourists and shoppers coming to watch the ARMY-NAVY Football game held on Saturday. SO the day between the football game and Thanksgiving they would shop and loot and it was really not a nice scene at all.

By 1961, “Black Friday” had caught on in Philadelphia, and the cities fathers tried to change the name to BIG FRIDAY, but no go. The term BLACK FRIDAY caught on in the rest of the country sometime in the late 1980's when retailers mark the occasion when America's retailers turned a profit.

What did we learn about Black Friday

As you can see that the term Black Friday stuck and stores have huge discounts to lure shoppers for what has become a 4 day shopping blitz. Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Sunday, and of course let's not forget Cyber Monday!

So there you have it! That is what I found. Do I do Black Friday, NO. Should I capitalize on Black Friday? As a business owner, Definitely; as a shopper probably but instead I will just enjoy watching the frenzied shopper from afar.