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ORIGIN

The origin of the name is commonly believed to be tied to the fact that the heavy shopping day after Thanksgiving is when many retailers are thought to become profitable. Businesses once recorded losses in red ink and gains in black, a tradition that lives on in modern Accounting software, hence the name. However, employees of retail stores have for years used the term in a Satirical way, to note the extremely stressful and hectic nature of the day. The earliest recorded (modern) usage of the name suggests the latter as being closer to the true name origin:

According to The Word Spy :


Earliest Citation:

Christmas decorations around Tampa Bay started going up in late October, and business has been brisk since then. And while Friday - known as Black Friday for the legendary hordes - will be the biggest shopping day for many area stores, others ring up the greatest sales the Saturday before Christmas.

—Marilyn Marks, "Retailers expect good sales this Christmas," St. Petersburg Times, November 27, 1986


An earlier reference speaking to the Friday after Thanksgiving.

A BLACK FRIDAY.

There have been many Black Fridays in recent history. Most of them have been days of financial panic. There has been none of blacker foreboding than last Friday. And the blackness is not loss or fear of loss in stocks and bonds.

New York Times (1857-Current file).

New York, N.Y.: Dec 3, 1922. pg. 38, 1 pgs

ISSN/ISBN 03624331


Although Black Friday is typically the busiest shopping day of the year in terms of customer traffic, it is not typically the day with the highest sales volume. That is usually either Christmas Eve or the last Saturday before Christmas .


GREEN FRIDAY

Some larger retailers, such as Toys R Us and Best Buy (and some Targets ), refer to Black Friday as Green Friday. ''Green'' in this case is a reference to the color of the United States Dollar . Since other major events that have black in their title are overwhelmingly negative, this could be an effort to downplay the hectic, chaotic nature of the day.


RESPONSE (BUY NOTHING DAY)

Anti-capitalist protestors have chosen this day as Buy Nothing Day in North America (though Canada has no equivalent event in its commercial cycle), where those concerned about the increasing power and influence of consumer corporations are urged to not make consumer purchases. The events surrounding Buy Nothing Day are not widely covered.


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