Frehow
This was first recorded in 1966 by Earl Apfelbaum, a dealer in rare stamps. In his ad, he said "'Black Friday' is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It is not a term of endearment to them. 'Black Friday' officially opens the Christmas shopping season in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing." The Police Department coined the phrase to describe the mayhem surrounding the congestion of pedestrian and auto traffic in the Center City downtown area.
12 Answers
clu
I thought it was Black Friday because this is when retailers make money. in the black as opposed as in the red. -accounting terms
| 13 years ago. Rating: 11 | |
Bob/PKB
I think clu has a clue bout the reason. Makes perfect sense to me.
I was going to suggest that the people come out in swarms; the congestion is so think that it could be compared to the swarms of locusts that blackened the skies during Biblical times and in recent past in the midwest of the US.
| 13 years ago. Rating: 5 | |
mycatsmom
Dollybird
Its name given to the shopping day after Thanksgiven, because so many people went to shop, and it caused so many accidents, and some times voilence also.
| 13 years ago. Rating: 5 | |
daren1
: Black Friday is the name given to the shopping day after Thanksgiving. It was originally called Black Friday because so many people went out to shop that it caused traffic accidents and sometimes even violence...
| 13 years ago. Rating: 4 | |
melandrupert
I might be wrong but I thought it was something to do with the stockmarket?
| 13 years ago. Rating: 4 | |
dowsa
When OBAMA came to power " Then he sang dreaming I am only dreaming
| 13 years ago. Rating: 2 | |
TSC
I DON'T KNOW
| 13 years ago. Rating: 2 | |
doolittle
In business to be "in the red" means you have debt or more debt than profit. To be "in the black" means you have made a profit or your profit is greater than your debt. On "Black Friday" the "biggest shopping day of the year" Companies hope that they will gain a profit large enough to put them "in the black" for the year. (some businesses hope to earn so much on this day to erase their debt-or lower it significantly- so that their fiscal (money) year ends with the business netting a profit. For example, Mr Joe's department store has a fiscal year that started on Jan.1, 2011. Joe's did not have much business Jan-June and they were "in the red" Business picked up July-October but the debt was still slightly higher than the debt (still 'in the red'). Joe's slashed prices and had hourly deals set up for black friday hoping that enough people would shop there to turn a true profit. They did. and the last 5 weeks of the year were ok. So on Dec. 31st the end of Joe's fiscal year they ended 'in the black' with the overall yearly profit slightly larger that the debt.
| 13 years ago. Rating: 1 | |
Darci13
