Why is it Called "Black Friday"? (1 Viewer)

[Elizabeth S]

OK, my curiosity has made me ask what may be a stupid question. . .why is the day after Thanksgiving called "Black Friday"? I keep seeing posts about "Black Friday" sales.

After pondering over it, the only reasoning I came up with is that it is the biggest shopping day of the year. Meaning profits, meaning in the "black".

Now, if it has some historical significance, I'll feel very :b

 

[LDfan]

It's mostly called Black Friday for the poor souls that work retail. It's a nightmare due to the insane number of customers and with everyone fighting for parking spots, items on shelves etc...

I worked p/t for Best Buy last year at this time. Absolutely unbelievable.

It's a good day for the consumer because of all the sales and great deals but a very BAD day for the people working it, hence Black Friday.

Jeff

 

[Elizabeth S]

Thanks, Jeff!
I can barely stand being a shopper in that mess, so I can imagine what it must be like for the workers!

 

[TheoGB]

Why is it such a big shopping day?
(Odd, incidentally, as the term 'black' applied to a day always seems to refer to stockmarket crashes from what i remember. )

 

[Scooter]

Elizabeth is correct...if a retail business is NOT in the black after that day or weekend...then the year for them is at a loss. But, it has also come to mean the misery of working AND shopping the day after Thanksgiving.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Yeah, basically working on such a chaotic day can't be fun for the worker-bees, and it's not fun for the shoppers who have to wait in line for long stretches of time, and getting minimal help due to the lack of enough worker-bees.

 

[Aurel Savin]

Having worked in Electronics Sales years ago ... I must say that Black Friday is HELL ... long 12-14 hour day .. but you could easily make $1000 in comissions!!!!

Not much selling was involved ... just customers walking in and saying "GIMME this ... GIMME that"

Absolute Hell ... Thank God I don't work in retail any longer.