History behind it.
There are many folk tales that have been circulating regarding the origins of Black Friday and we’ve researched the authenticity of these tales to find that there are two stories which hold weight. One such story cites the first occurence of Black Friday from 1869, September 24 when two Wall Street investors, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk made an attempt to buy all the gold reserves in hopes of re-selling through price gouging. These moves caused the price of gold to skyrocket resulting in the crash of the gold market which caused foreign trade to stop, farmers to suffer 50% losses in wheat and corn harvest and the stock market to free fall. This effect on the markets called for retailers to sell their goods at extremely low prices which garnered up massive sales from the public. The second origin story has Black Friday culminating from the city of Philadelphia where in the 1950’s, police coined the term ‘Black Friday’ to describe the frantic chaos that occured on the day after Thanksgiving. Hordes of suburban shoppers and tourists would swarm the city to watch the Army vs Navy football game held annually after Thanksgiving. The in-city congestion meant that all police would have to work 12 hour shifts to facilitate occurrences such as petty crimes, crowd traffic and vehicle parking. By the time the 1960’s came around, the term had become popular amongst the media but had a negative connotation. It wasn’t up until the 1980’s where the term was flipped to represent a day where businesses would turn profits instead of loss due to the holiday season
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why is it called Black Friday?
During the 1900's Accountants used red pens in order to mark where business profits where running at a loss. This was called being in "the red". Where business owners made profits, accountants usually marked those figures with a black pen. Since retailers in America used the November period to clear stock in their stores for new items that would arrive before Christmas they would usually drastically lower prices on stock in order to have clearance sales. It was not until the 1980's that accountants started referring to the sales profits made on every Friday after Thanksgiving in the USA as Black Friday. The "black" relating to profit and the day "Friday" as the day on which the sale happens.
When is Black Friday?
Black Friday is held on the first Friday after the American Holiday known as Thanksgiving.
When is Black Friday 2018?
Friday, 23 November 2018
Is Black Friday celebrated in South Africa?
Yes, some large retail and whole sale stores will be participating in Black Friday