Black Friday
Scrambling for savings in the wee hours of the morning
Alex Q. Arbuckle
Nov. 28, 2003
The day after Thanksgiving marks the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season. Since the early 2000s it has consistently been the busiest shopping day of the year in the U.S. The name “Black Friday” was first applied by Philadelphia police officers in the early 1960s, who had to work 12-hour shifts contending with the chaotic downtown traffic jams caused by swarms of shoppers. Merchants tried to apply more cheerful labels, such as “Big Friday,” but by the 1970s and ‘80s the “Black Friday” name had spread to other cities. Advertisers and retailers decided to roll with it, claiming it was the day businesses finally started to turn a profit — going from the “red" into the “black.”In the 2000s, retailers offering huge savings began to open earlier and earlier, building hype and leading people to camp out for a spot in line.Here, shoppers invade the KB Toys at the mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania before dawn on Black Friday 2003.
