Black Friday has always been chaotic since the “holiday” was officiated in the 1950’s. Although as the years have gone by, Black Friday has become more aggressive, almost as if it were a full time job for one day.

This day that falls once a year the Friday after Thanksgiving drives most people mad spending tons of money from “deals” in many different stores within malls and  department stores. Everybody is in a rush to spend what they think is less money for the holidays approaching like Christmas and Hanukkah. 

Back in the 1950’s Black Friday was the term used to describe the chaos that ensued the day after Thanksgiving when swarms of suburban shoppers and tourists swamped the city in advance of the big Army-Navy football game held on that Saturday every year.

The police at the time used this term mainly since they would never be able to take the day off, having to work many extra hours dealing with additional crowds and traffic. Shoplifters used this chaos within the streets and stores to snag some extra merchandise adding onto the headache of the Philadelphia police. 

When 1961 had arrived “Black Friday” was a catch, although merchandisers had attempted to change the name to “Big Friday” to avoid negative connotations. That title did not spread throughout the country at that time and wasn’t even heard of nationwide until the 1980s. Retailers then decided to turn this into a positive not a negative. The result of this idea was known as “red to black” and the concept that the day after Thanksgiving marked the occasion when America’s stores finally developed a profit.

After the new terminology had stuck, the negative side of the story from Philadelphia initially faded away. Since then, the holiday sales had developed into a 4 day event from Black Friday, Small Business Saturday/Sunday to Cyber Monday with the new developed technology as years have passed into the 20th century. Most dedicated stores and shoppers open up early and start early. The most dedicated shoppers start the shopping right after their Thanksgiving meal. 

Now as this seems to be a great way to start the holidays, it has had its major downsides. Violence has broken out in many stores and their parking lots. Many people fight over the last item or prices with the employees. Some people even threaten entire malls.

The most recent local threat was made to the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey at around 7 am the morning of Black Friday. The threat consisted of a bomb threat. After somebody sent in the threat the entire mall of Black Friday shoppers was evacuated.

It ended up being a false alarm and the shoppers continued their manic shopping spree. Although this one happened to be an untrue threat there have been many other dangerous actions. Injuries and deaths have occurred due to fist fights, shootings, stabbings and car accidents. 

This Black Friday definitely had many great deals set alongside with danger, but now that it’s over it’s onto wrapping presents and prepping for holiday spectaculars!