Black Friday Research Paper

Black Friday is known as the biggest shopping day of the year in the United States. Where did Black Friday come from? The Friday after Thanksgiving has always been the day to kick off the Christmas season. The term Black Friday was first used in the 1960s. “Black” refers to the stores moving from “red” to “black.” Back when accounting records were kept by hand red ink was used to indicate loss and black ink was used to indicate profit. For years it was common for retailers to open at 6AM but starting in the early 2000s stores started opening at 5AM or 4AM. In 2011 it was taken to a new extreme where many retailers opened their doors at midnight. Black Friday was always the kick off to the Christmas season and in 1993 to 2001 ranked from 5th to 10th for the busiest shopping days of the year, with the last Saturday before Christmas ranking number one. However in 2003 Black Friday was the busiest shopping day of the year and has maintained that position ever since. Why is Black Friday such a popular day to shop? Many employers give their employees the day off and schools are shut down as well, increasing the number of consumers drastically. Retailers use different tactics to attract customers. Many are opening earlier and earlier every year, some do this just to keep up with competition. But some use other tactics, for example Forever 21 opened at normal hours, but having their sales go until 2am. Starting in 2011 Black Friday started to reach other countries such as
In Valley Stream, New York at a Wal-Mart an employee was trampled to death when the crowd of customers came rushing in when doors opened. In 2012, in Wisconsin a woman was arrested outside a Toys 'R' Us store for threatening to shoot other customers. Most recent in 2012, two people were shot outside a Wal-Mart in Florida after a dispute over a parking