If you saw my previous post, you know I don’t do Black Friday, but I do have pretty awful FOMO about it. Curious about its origins, I delved deeper into its history.

I always believed that it was called Black Friday, because most of the year the stores are in the red (running at a profit loss), but there is sooooo much shopping the Friday after Thanksgiving that they made it to Black (operating with profits up). I was shocked to find out that this was a rumor and a lie created in the late 1980’s by the retail industry to make Black Friday sound better. (I hate when I fall for things like this!)

The truth is the term “Black Friday” came out of the Philadelphia Police Department in the 1950’s. All the people from suburbia, slammed into the city on Friday trying to get their shopping finished before the Army-Navy Game on Saturday. This created total chaos. The traffic was terrible, the stores were smashed full of people, and the shoplifters were out in full force taking advantage of the mess. Because of this, no police officer was allowed to have the day off, and they had to work extra hours!

Around 1961, the term caught on throughout the city, and the retailers tried to change the name to “Big Friday”, but as you know, this was useless. The rest of the country started calling the Friday after Thanksgiving “Black Friday” around 1985. Giving up on the whole “Big Friday” thing, the retailers spread the story most people know today about being in the red and that Friday turning their profits around. Most retailers are in the red all year. (I can’t imagine you worrying that Target going out of business or even hurting in say April.)

So help me spread the truth at your Thanksgiving Table, and look super smart in front of the relatives!