The term “Black Friday” has become synonymous with long lines, good deals, crazy consumerism, and, increasingly so, violence. Shoppers will line up for hours, or even days, to make sure they get the great price on the TV they’ve been eying.
Black Friday itself has an interesting history.
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The day after Thanksgiving became a big day for retailers starting in 1924 when Macy’s put on their first Thanksgiving Day Parade (at a time when retailers and consumers waited until after Thanksgiving to start the Christmas season). The parade always ends with Santa Claus, marking the official beginning of the holiday shopping season.
Calling the day after Thanksgiving “Black Friday” began in the 1950s. So many factory workers wouldn’t show up for work on that day (whether this was because they were recovering from the day before or taking advantage of holiday sales is unknown) that factory owners and managers started calling that day Black Friday.
In the 1960s, the name gained more notoriety when Philadelphia police officers started using it to describe the day after Thanksgiving when the start of the holiday shopping season coincided with the annual Army-Navy football game played in Philly. The traffic jam caused by all the people bustling about became a huge headache for cops, and they started referring to that day as “Black Friday”.
By the 1980s, in an attempt to put a more positive spin on the moniker and turn it in their favor, retailers were pushing the idea that the “black” in Black Friday was in reference to stores’ balance sheets moving from the “red” to the “black” as holiday shopping began with a bang. They began to realize that, by offering exceptional deals on that day, they could draw crowds of shoppers.
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Thus became what we now recognize as Black Friday, a phenomenon that gets bigger every year. In 2002, Black Friday took the lead as the busiest shopping day of the year; and it has stayed in that spot almost every year since.
Stores compete with each other for consumers, leading many to push their opening times earlier and earlier. This year, many will open their doors on Thanksgiving Day, including mega-retailer Walmart, which will start their Black Friday sale at 6 p.m. on Thursday.
Kohl’s, Sears, Macy’s, and Target will join Walmart in the 6 p.m. Thursday slot. Best Buy, J.C. Penney, and Toys R Us will open at 5 p.m. on Thursday.
And, in an effort to bring in the most customers, Kmart’s door buster deals will start at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
While millions of people will line up for good deals on or before Thanksgiving, many others decry the consumerism and the violence that have become synonymous with the “holiday.” There is an ever-growing list of conflicts, injuries, and even deaths related to the shopping extravaganza.
- In New York, several shoppers were trampled trying to get into a Target. One of the victims, Keith Krantz, told a CNN affiliate he thought he was going to die, saying, “At that moment I was thinking, I don’t want to die here on the ground.”
- In Florida, a man in a crowd of shoppers at Walmart was found to be carrying two knives, a gun, and a pepper spray grenade.
- In California, nine people, including an elderly woman, were taken to the hospital after being injured when a skirmish erupted in a mall over gift certificates that were being dropped from the ceiling.
- In Ohio, a fight broke out between a young girl and a man at Walmart over a TV. It had to be broken up by a police officer and a security guard.
- In California, two women started a fight in a Toys R Us, which was broken up by two men with guns who chased each other around the store and eventually shot each other to death.
- In Florida, two people were shot while fighting over a parking space at Walmart.
- In New York, a temporary worker, Jdimytai Damour, died of asphyxiation when crowds trampled him as they stormed into Wal-Mart.
You can check out a compilation video of some of the craziness below:
