What Is Black Friday And Where Did It Come From?

 Black Friday Shoppers

For years, as early as the 1950's, people have been gearing up for Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when retail stores drop their prices and practice their biggest sales of the year for one day.

There are many stories and myths about where Black Friday came from, but one the more interesting stories comes from Philadelphia PA. In the 1950's thousands of people would attend the Army/Navy football game that took place the Friday after Thanksgiving. With a larger crowed presence, stores dropped their prices in hopes of bringing people into the shops. The police officers were forced to work twice as hard and twice as long as a normal shift on this day, and so they gave the day its own name and coined the phrase "Black Friday" and it began to catch on across America.

Not long after Black Friday started to get popularized, retail stores decided to try and do away with the negativity of its origins and in the late 1980s created the "red to black" notion, which means the day after Thanksgiving is the day retailers actually turn a profit.

But what does this mean for our economy? Black Friday not only gives a boost to the economy, it also helps the stock market see what people are spending on and how much they're spending going into the new year. This can have effects on the way retails set up for the next year to come.

However the sales have started sooner every year and with technology advancing we are starting to see more use of online shopping. With stores keeping prices low after Thanksgiving and people not being able to attend the Black Friday sales, they began online shopping at work the following Monday, this become such a large thing the National Retail Federation (NRF) coined the term Cyber Monday.

For more on the traditions and dangers behind Black Friday watch the video here.