LAHORE – You must have heard much hullabaloo about the “Black Friday” event intended at luring shoppers in stores for purchasing items but have you ever wondered about origin of the term.
Black Friday term was coined for the first time in 1980 and it began to be used by retailers to refer to the single day of the year when they made massive profits. It is the day after Thanksgiving, when customers take advantage of the holiday to do some some shopping.
The term was used by retailers to refer to the single day of the year when retail companies finally go “into the black” (make a profit) after being “in the red” for much of the year.
Rumors have also circulated that the term surfaced after an invented tradition to sell slaves the day after Thanksgiving, while others think its original could be much more recent.
Joseph P. Barrett, who was police reporter for the Philadelphia Bulletin opines something completely different about its origin and according to his viewpoint the term “Black Friday” came out of the old Philadelphia Police Department’s traffic squad.
The cops used the term to describe the horrible traffic jams that happened when people poured into town on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
No traffic policeman was permitted to take the day off. The division was placed on 12 tours of duty, and even the police band was ordered to Center City.
