The many histories of Black Friday
From discounts on slaves to post-Thanksgiving celebrations, the origin of big sale day is a puzzle
Once again, Black Friday is upon us. While it s ’ still an unofficial holiday ”, it seems fair to say that it has firmly entrenched itself in South Africa.
Like many of SA s holidays
’
not based on historical events Valentines and Mother s/Father s
’ ’
Day and so on it s actually
– ’
borrowed from the US and its history is rather interesting.
I say that because there is actually no established history out there.
All that exists is a bunch of legends and hearsay, although some do seem more likely than others.
For today, we ll look at three
’
of the most popular ones.
The first is probably the darkest of the lot.
The legend goes that Black Friday got its name from 1800s US when plantation owners could buy slaves for drastically reduced prices on the day after
Thanksgiving.
Putting aside the rich metaphorical potential in this rumour, there are absolutely no facts to back it up so we can safely put it aside as just one more bit of highly fictionalised pop history.
The second story is the version often promoted by retailers. According to this version, Black Friday started out as a kind of accounting in-joke.
After a year of running at a loss (“in the red ”), the postThanksgiving sales gave businesses a sudden surge in profit (“in the black ”).
While this is certainly a more likely origin than the first, it is equally lacking of a factual basis. It makes for a nice marketing one-liner but that s
’
probably all it is.
The third story does have basis in fact and is widely considered to be true.
The term Black Friday was
“”
first used in its modern context by the police in Philadelphia,
US in the 1950s to describe the day after Thanksgiving.
On this day, hordes of shoppers and tourists would descend on the city for the annual Army versus Navy football game.
Needless to say, this placed incredible strain on the police force every year, hence the term.
The problem was so bad that in 1961, a number of Philly businesses tried to unsuccessfully re-brand the day as Big Friday but that never
”
stuck.
However, the term Black
“
Friday didn t catch on in SA
” ’
until nearly 30 years after its inception.
In the late 1980s, businesses finally succeeded in flipping Black Friday s reputation,
’
turning it from a derogatory term for one city s logistical
’
nightmare to a special day dedicated to shopping till you drop.
The rest, as they say, is history.