It is the most well-known shopping day of the year. The day after Thanksgiving marks the official beginning of the Christmas shopping season, and it all begins with Black Friday. It originated in 1924 after the start of the modern Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Stores would drastically lower prices in order to entice more shoppers. The name “Black” refers to the fact that the stores would go from “red” (the color ink used to record debt) to “black,” which indicated a profit, as a result of the immense amount of business brought about by the sales.

With stores retailing merchandise as low as 80% off, and offering limited door busters, more people than ever before are rushing to swoop in on the bargains. Nowadays, stores such as Target and Walmart do not even wait for the end of Thanksgiving. They open their doors to begin Black Friday sales as early as 6pm on Thursday, before the turkey is even cold; taking their employees and customers away from their families and friends on one of the most special days of the year. Besides this, Black Friday has other harmful effects, not excluding death. In 2008, a 34 year old Walmart employee named Jdimytai Damour was tragically trampled to death by Black Friday shoppers in a Long Island Walmart. While there is nothing wrong with trying to get a bargain on Black Friday, Damour’s passing reminds us that people are always more valuable than possessions.

Information for this article taken from:

https://blackfriday.com/pages/black-friday-history

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/worker-dies-li-wal-mart-stampede-article-1.334059