What started Black Friday: the story of the legendary sale
'23.11.2018'
Source: Bigpicture.ru
Black Friday - a traditional American sale after Thanksgiving, which causes a big stir, has a long history. At first they called it the collapse of the gold market, a hundred years later - terrible traffic jams in Pennsylvania. When did Friday turn black in the usual sense of the word?
For more than a hundred years, American retailers have intensified the marketing attack and increased discounts after Thanksgiving, especially on Friday, which became widely known as Black Friday, writes Bigpicture.ru.
But the term “Black Friday” in relation to sales after Thanksgiving Day is used relatively recently, and it looks like it came from Pennsylvania.
This is how it happened.
For many years, the phrase "Black Friday" meant the collapse of the gold market in September 24 1869. The term was used for other stock market crises on Wall Street in subsequent years. This clipping is from the New York Herald's November 1871 of the year, describing lawsuits against speculators Jay Gould and Jim Fisk.
The stock market crisis even formed the basis of the dramatic work, and a “social play” was created, as mentioned in this clipping from the issue of The Daily Picayune for 1872 year published in New Orleans.
In fact, this is an old version of the movie "The game for the slide."
“Black Friday” also meant any Friday, 13. In 1923, there were two of these. This is stated in this article from The Springfield Daily Leader for 4 in January 1923, published in Springfield, Missouri.
After Thanksgiving sales have always been popular. They just didn't have a name.
This is a newspaper ad for 1894 year, published in Lima, Ohio. It offers trendy clothes patterns for just 8,88 dollars as a sale on Friday after Thanksgiving.
In 1923, a store in Pennsylvania advertised its "Annual Sale After Thanksgiving Day" and "radical discounts on coats and dresses."
In March, 1970, when it was about eight months before Thanksgiving, the store in Pennsylvania arranged Black Friday Sale, meaning Friday, March, 13.
In 1973, Black Friday was still not associated with Thanksgiving — at least, as this newspaper clipping shows, not in Kingsport, Tennessee.
But wait! In the 1975 year, an article from the Pennsylvania newspaper says that taxi and bus drivers in major cities mention the hectic day after Thanksgiving as “Black Friday,” which marks the beginning of Christmas shopping and the “insane chasing Christmas gifts.” This is stated in a note from The Morning Herald, published in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, dated December 5 of 1975.
The New York Times responded in the same year, writing that the police and bus drivers in Philadelphia had a hard time on “the day of the biggest shopping and the biggest traffic congestion in a year.” A spokesman for the municipal authorities noted that this negative trend began in 1961 year.
The general manager of a shopping center in Pennsylvania in 1977 offered an alternative, saying to the local newspaper Delaware County Daily Times: “Instead of Black Friday, you can call it Green Friday ... Things are going great.”
But this term did not become known to the whole country. In 1980, the Associated Press news agency quoted a department store employee who said that a busy day after Thanksgiving for retailers was “definitely not Black Friday” - in a good way. This article appeared in the San Bernardino County Sun issue of 29 November California 1980.
In 1980, Pennsylvania state newspapers began to be regularly called “Black Friday” in their notes the day after Thanksgiving, possibly due to traffic jams.
This is a clipping from the Standard-Speaker of Hazelton, Pa., For 1989 a year. Black Friday has not yet been associated with something good and pleasant.
Even in this article by the Associated Press for 1989 the year that Black Friday is mentioned, the author notes that she is from Philadelphia, where the day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday “because of crowds of people and outrageous congestion in shopping centers and parking lots”
In the 1995 year, a note from the Standard Speaker newspaper said that “no one really knows,” why Black Friday is so called. There is a quote from a long-time employee of the newspaper, who suggested that the shops finish their work at that time after dark. The quick-witted staff member was Andy Rusnok from Beaver Meadows, Pennsylvania.
In 1996, another newspaper from Pennsylvania, Indiana Gazette, wrote about Black Friday more specifically, noting that this is the only day when the books of trade enterprises will definitely be black from records.
The New York Times the same year fixed the meaning of the phrase, writing that Black Friday got its name, “because merchants hope that intensive trade will appear in black ink on their balance sheet documents.”
Since then, this idea is often repeated.
Here is a note from the Associated Press: “The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday, because, according to tradition, this day is tense for commercial enterprises because of the wave of holiday shopping that can increase the profit of the stores.”
And here is a note from the Wall Street Journal for 2012 a year. It says that Black Friday is not a day at all when stores make a profit comparable to the annual one, and that merchants must fight not to be left out because of this sale.
Most large retail chains begin their Black Friday sale directly on Thanksgiving, that is, on Thursday, although there are exceptions. The start time has shifted so much that in some cases they open for sale at midnight before Thanksgiving, as was the case in 2011.
In Russia, there is also Black Friday. A big sale in online stores starts on Thursday, and most stores arrange a sale on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Enjoy the shopping!
