- Black Friday originated from the 1869 US financial panic linked to a gold market crash
- In the 1950s and 60s, Philadelphia police called chaotic post-Thanksgiving crowds Black Friday
- Retailers rebranded Black Friday as a profitable shopping day in the 1980s despite myths
Black Friday did not begin as a celebration of discounts. Its earliest recorded use dates back to the 1869 financial panic in the United States, when on September 24 that year, two Wall Street speculators - Jay Gould and James Fisk - tried to corner the gold market. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the scheme triggered a market crash so severe that the day came to be remembered as "Black Friday", symbolising economic ruin rather than retail opportunity.
The phrase resurfaced almost a century later, but again with negative connotations. A report in The New York Times said that police officers in Philadelphia in the 1950s and '60s used "Black Friday" to describe the chaos that followed Thanksgiving, as huge crowds poured into the city before an annual Army-Navy football game. The streets were gridlocked, shoplifting cases spiked, and exhausted police officers came to dread the day.
Retailers disliked the term because it suggested disorder and lawlessness - hardly ideal for attracting customers.
How Retailers Reclaimed The Phrase
The transformation from trouble to triumph was driven largely by the retail industry itself. The BBC notes that Philadelphia shops eventually embraced the massive footfall, promoting it as the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season.
By the 1980s, US retailers attempted a full rebrand, pushing a new narrative - that Black Friday was the day stores "went into the black", shifting from annual losses ("in the red") to profitability. The Guardian points out that although the explanation was more myth-making than reality, it helped neutralise the negative associations around the term.
Advertising campaigns amplified the rebranded meaning. Retailers began offering deep discounts, extended hours and headline-grabbing "doorbuster deals." By the early 2000s, Black Friday had transformed into a carefully engineered commercial spectacle - still chaotic but now celebrated.
A Global Cultural Export
Black Friday's modern risehappened after the 2008 financial crisis. The New York Times reported that after the crisis, retailers leaned heavily on discount-driven strategies, and Black Friday exploded in scale.
The spread of online shopping, especially through Amazon, turned Black Friday from a US phenomenon into a global event. BBC News notes that countries with no Thanksgiving holiday - including India, the UK and parts of Europe - adopted the sale simply because consumers expected it.
Today, Black Friday marks the start of a multi-day retail cycle that includes Cyber Monday and extended "Cyber Week" promotions.
