Black Friday

I'm not at all comfortable in a crowd, especially in an enclosed area and although I love a bargain, there was no way I would be battling the post Thanksgiving shopping rush/crush.

But the thought of purchasing recently released DVD's for $3.95 was just too much of a temptation; I would stop by Target on my way to work this morning. Which I did....

It was 6:20 AM as I entered the store and immediately noticed the lines at the registers were approximately 20 deep. I exited the store.

END OF STORY

As for the term Black Friday when referring to the Friday immediately following Thanksgiving, it's been noted that employees of retail stores have for years referred to Black Friday in a satirical way, to note the extremely stressful and hectic nature of the day. Heavy traffic and customer demands added to the long hours make it a difficult day.

Another theory is that retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss for most of the year (January through November) and made their profit during the holiday season. When this would be recorded in the financial records, common accounting practices use red ink to show negative amounts and black ink would show positive amounts. Black Friday is the beginning of the period where they would no longer have losses (the red) and instead take in the year's profits (the black).

I just had to look this up!