The Dark Origins of Black Friday

The 2011 version of Black Friday safely behind us, we can now focus on a joyful holiday season without the fear of fistfights, pepper-spraying mamas, and stampeding Wal-mart shoppers.

But this year, as I drove past a mini-tent city in front of Best Buy (TWO DAYS BEFORE BLACK FRIDAY), I got to thinking: What are the sinister origins of this wintry day of doom? Forget for a moment the psychotic notion of shopping in the middle of the night on Thanksgiving--how did we get here?


Take trip back to 1966 in Philadelphia, where we read the words of columnist Martin L. Apfelbaum (sweet name. Sounds like an ointment made from apples):

JANUARY 1966 -- "Black Friday" is the name which the Philadelphia Police
Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day.  It is not a
term of endearment to them.  "Black Friday" officially opens the Christmas
shopping season in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams
and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to
closing.

Who knew people were mobbing like maniacs, clogging streets, and jamming traffic back in 1966? I sure didn't.

Somewhere along the line, businesses tried to put a positive spin on the day, spreading the idea that they were "in the black" (making a profit) due to all of the business done on Thanksgiving. If you ever hear that line, don't be fooled. And don't be fooled by all that "peace and love" hippy nonsense either. Those 1960 types GOT DOWN on Black Friday just like today's pepper-spraying, door-smashing, package-ripping beasts of 2011.

Human beings. Who else can transform a season of giving into a literal shopping smackdown? Such special creatures.