The term ‘Black Friday’ stirs ears and turns heads in every household as it is that time of the year when the MRP on products goes shockingly down. The most anticipated sale of the year has been the cause of unsettling desperation among shoppers and many “indeliberate” push and shoves along the aisle. But how did Black Friday come to be in the first place? What is the history behind the widely discounted season that causes so much unrest?
As the continuous bing-bong of our commercial notifications remind us, Black Friday comes on the next Friday after Thanksgiving. Tradition dictates for the holiday of Thanksgiving be held on a Thursday. Therefore with the inclusion of the Black Friday sale, the festivities are not broken mid-week and it turns into a merry four-day weekend. The dream of any 9 to 5 corporate worker. Let us learn more about the grand sale season.
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History Of Black Friday
The history of Black Friday starts way back in the 1930s when factory workers in America called in sick the day after Thanksgiving in order to enjoy a four-day weekend. Hence the word Black Friday was first coined when mass labor skipped work in the name of sickness. However, the name started to catch on as the insanely low prices brought the street traffic of New York, Toronto, Mexico, and many other places to see the worst congestion of the year. In 1975, The New York Times referred to Black Friday as, “the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year”.
The end of Thanksgiving and the Black Friday sale marked the beginning of shopping for the ultimate Christian holiday, Christmas. Observing this, retail stores bring out undeniable offers in light of heavy shopping. Merchants started to profit immensely from these annual sales. President, Franklin De Roosevelt’s amendment in 1939, of shifting Thanksgiving from the last Thursday to the fourth Thursday elongated the shopping season by a few more days. Thus making ambitious merchants swim in profit during the festive season.
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Black Friday Around The World
With the approach of Black Friday, the unofficial shopping for the holiday month begins. Over the years, retail stores in the United States have tested the mettle of shoppers by starting to operate from unconventional hours. In 2011, several retail stores like Macy’s, Target, and BestBuy opened their doors for business as early as midnight. Stores like Victoria’s Secret, Sears, Tilly’s, Nike, and Puma began selling in the early hours and kept open till 11 pm next Friday in 2010. Many other shopping hubs around the world like Toronto, Paris, and Abu Dhabi light up with crowds and bold signs of sale.
However, in numerous instances, the unrest of shoppers has taxed heavily on the working labor and caused acts of violence during Black Friday. In 2015, a Florence mall saw the worst fights in years as people had a tug-of-war over a pair of Air Jordans. A woman in California’s Walmart pepper-sprayed and injured 20 people, in 2011, who had been waiting for hours to shop. And the worst came when in 2008 in New York, a crowd of eager customers waiting for the 5 am shopping hours at Walmart trampled a 34-year-old employer. The shoppers unconcerned with the injured man on the floor continued to shop unaffected. Therefore, let’s not bring down the spirits of the holiday this season by shallow acts of insensitivity. Rather relish the festivities by conscious shopping.
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