Spring Break
Black Friday: Batteries not included
Tucker Middleton
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Pulse
Halloween has passed and the arrival of Thanksgiving signals more than just turkey and stuffing.
Every deal-hunting consumer knows the day after Thanksgiving as "Black Friday" - as a day when stores open at ludicrously early hours and mark item prices down so much they practically give them away.
Black Friday traces its roots to the 19th century, when it was used to describe the 1869 financial panic. The term gained its most recent meaning in the 20th century, when it began to be used to describe the chaos of the day after Thanksgiving - the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season.
The modern term was coined in Philadelphia by police officers. A 1966 article by Bonnie Taylor-Blake of the American Dialectic Society is the earliest reference found of Black Friday.
"Black Friday" is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day," she wrote. "It is not a term of endearment to them. 'Black Friday' officially opens the Christmas shopping season in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing."
Today, many cities throughout the U.S. experience the type of chaos Taylor-Blake describes. Black Friday's publicity and increased media exposure has only made it more chaotic in recent years.
In fact, in 2008, a Walmart worker was trampled to death by a stampede of shoppers when the store opened the morning of Black Friday. Fortunately, Black Friday induced deaths are more the exception than the rule.
Still, most regular Black Friday shoppers do have some sort of story to tell. Whether it is parents humorously playing tug-of-war with the last Tickle Me Elmo or two girls shooting each other at Toys "R" Us during the shopping mob frenzy which happened in Palm Desert, C.A., last year. No Black Friday story seems too over the top.
Aside from all the Black Friday eccentricities, what can we expect Black Friday to look like this year?
Every deal-hunting consumer knows the day after Thanksgiving as "Black Friday" - as a day when stores open at ludicrously early hours and mark item prices down so much they practically give them away.
Black Friday traces its roots to the 19th century, when it was used to describe the 1869 financial panic. The term gained its most recent meaning in the 20th century, when it began to be used to describe the chaos of the day after Thanksgiving - the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season.
The modern term was coined in Philadelphia by police officers. A 1966 article by Bonnie Taylor-Blake of the American Dialectic Society is the earliest reference found of Black Friday.
"Black Friday" is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day," she wrote. "It is not a term of endearment to them. 'Black Friday' officially opens the Christmas shopping season in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing."
Today, many cities throughout the U.S. experience the type of chaos Taylor-Blake describes. Black Friday's publicity and increased media exposure has only made it more chaotic in recent years.
In fact, in 2008, a Walmart worker was trampled to death by a stampede of shoppers when the store opened the morning of Black Friday. Fortunately, Black Friday induced deaths are more the exception than the rule.
Still, most regular Black Friday shoppers do have some sort of story to tell. Whether it is parents humorously playing tug-of-war with the last Tickle Me Elmo or two girls shooting each other at Toys "R" Us during the shopping mob frenzy which happened in Palm Desert, C.A., last year. No Black Friday story seems too over the top.
Aside from all the Black Friday eccentricities, what can we expect Black Friday to look like this year?
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