Black Friday

On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer, on Vixen,
OK, I'm up and I'm going Blitzen!

It has many names, no matter what you want to call it, or your company wants to call it. Blitz, DAT, Day After Sale, Door Buster or Black Friday...What it means to retailers is pure MONEY, what it means to retail workers is PURE HELL.

But WHY does it have so many names? Blitz is a pretty simple one for football fans. Defenses Blitz....just like the hoards of shoppers when they enter a freshly opened door! Thus the special name Wal-Mart gives to their sale. DAT=Day after Thanksgiving...DUH! The others are again pretty simple....but Black Friday? Huh?

Jumping into the research I have found MANY explanations and a few of them from way out in the outers realms of believable. The City Desk website claims that it all started with a Salesman named Mr. Black that was so awesome at his job that his boss nicknamed the day after him when he died one year on the day after Thanksgiving when he got off work...I'm calling BS there.

Another commonly accepted explanation is that the day after Thanksgiving is the first day that retailers begin to show profits. Since accountants used to notate deficits or losses in the books in red ink and then profits were recorded in Black ink that led the holiday shopping season, which is very profitable, to be the beginning of the season for retailers to make profits. Makes sense to an extent, but with the Big Box retailers such as Wal-Mart becoming so successful they generally show profits all year long.

Historically Black Friday refers to the Gold Plummet of 1869. When the Federal Government sold a significant amount of gold on September 24th and caused the market to fall. But that's hardly relevant for our purposes.

Supposedly, Philadelphia was the origins of the Black Friday moniker, where it applied to the vehicle and pedestrian traffic on the day after Thanksgiving. Not sure why or what that is supposed to mean, but the day is right anyway?

I'm saying that it refers to the cold, black hearted way in which we treat each other on this day while out trying to get the best deals on things all over town....but that's just me.

Now in honor of Thanksgiving, I have another video for you to enjoy. I dedicate this one to my Turkey Trey and I'll add.....Nope!