Black Friday is a nationwide retail holiday on the Friday after Thanksgiving. It is a chance for consumers to buy gifts for a highly reduced price. Black Friday started in the 50s with Philadelphia cops and the chaos they had to deal with. There was a lot of commotion ensued after Thanksgiving because of the winter holidays and the big football game between the Navy and the Army. Cops had to work longer because of the terrible traffic and the shoplifters who were taking advantage of the craziness. Cops started to recognize this Friday as a recurring dilemma each year. In the 60s, the term Black Friday started to be used but only in Philadelphia. In the late 80s, retailers were able to reinvent the term Black Friday into what we know today, and through the years Black Friday has changed and adapted.

Black Friday has been getting bigger and bigger each year. Stores like to get a head start and sometimes have sales for the whole month. Almost every store has jumped on this train of starting earlier as it allows them to have more sales. Joni McElory (9) has noticed this in her recent shopping trips. 

“I went to the mall and almost every store offered some kind of Black Friday promotion. The mall was busier than I’d seen it in a while,” McElroy said.

Online shopping has become bigger over the years and has become a huge part of Black Friday. If you don’t feel like leaving your house, you can bet your favorite store is having a sale online. A lot of people choose to do this method of shopping but McElroy sees an issue in this. 

“Sometimes it slows down websites because there’s a lot of people using it at once,” McElroy said.

With the many ways you can go about Black Friday, people have different plans for the day. Some like to go about the online route which you can do from the comfort of your own home, some like to take advantage of the sales all month, and some people like to experience the original way by going to stores on Black Friday and dealing with the chaos in person. McElroy likes to go into stores the whole month and use the deals while she goes to the mall. 

“The sales were really good in some of the stores, so I got a lot of good deals,” McElroy said.

Black Friday is a beloved retail holiday and it allows customers to get the upcoming holiday shopping out of the way and for a lower price. With all the ways to get savings, you should take part in the Black Friday craze this year. Happy holidays!