Black Friday is the name given to the day following Thanksgiving, which is traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day, most major retailers open extremely early, often at 4 am, or midnight or nowadays on Thanksgiving night. To work that turkey off they have promotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but judging from commute time and crowds in stores you might think so. It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005 although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate, have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time.
The news media has long described the day after Thanksgiving as the busiest shopping day of the year. In earlier years, this was not actually the case. According to wikipedia in the period from 1993 through 2001, for example, Black Friday ranked from fifth to tenth on the list of busiest shopping days, with the last Saturday before Christmas usually taking first place. In 2003, Black Friday actually was the busiest shopping day of the year, and it has retained that position every year since, with the exception of 2004, when it ranked second.
The day's name originated in Philadelohia, perhaps back to around 1961 where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the period at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black".
So why do we call it Black Friday ?
By the early 1980s, an alternative theory began to be circulated: that retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss for most of the year and made their profit during the holiday season, beginning on the day after Thanksgiving When this would be recorded in the financial records, the once common accounting practices would use red ink to show negative amounts and black ink to show positive amounts.
So here are some suggestions to rename it.
Super Friday. After all we have a Super Bowl.
Shopping Friday. Isn't that what everyone does ?
Holiday Friday. With a nod to Madonna's song.
Spend Friday. What else.
Turkey Friday. It is the day after Thanksgiving.
Mega Friday. For mega deals.
Green Friday. Keeps in step with energy and is still the color of money.
Fiscal Cliff Friday. Shoppers probably approach that.
Any other names ?
With the election coming up Tuesday, I sometimes wonder how people choose political parties. Maybe the parties choose them. After doing some thinking and research I came up with some differences between the two. Republicans roll a toothpaste tube as they use it. Democrats squeeze from the top. Republicans like a good brandy. Democrats drink beer. Republicans sleep in twin beds. That is why there are more Democrats. Thank you will Stanton. When a leader is in the Democratic Party he's a boss; when he's in the Republican Party he's a leader.Thank you Harry Truman. Democrats give their old clothes to the poor, Republicans wear theirs Democrats like baseball,especially the World Series. Republicans like college football, especially the BCS controversies. Democrats drink coffee from a mug. Republicans drink coffee from a cup with a saucer Democrats call the evening meal supper. Republicans call it dinner. Democrats believe people are basically good but must be saved from themse...
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