The day after Thanksgiving has long been known as Black Friday, the day when every retailer lowers prices for people to get in their Christmas shopping done early. This unofficial holiday got it’s name from when businesses used to use pens to track profits and losses. If they used a red pen they were in the red which meant they were not making a profit, if they were in the black it meant they were using a black pen and were making a profit.Typically these businesses will be in the red all year long to move to the black by the end of the day on Friday.

Another reason for the name is during the 1950’s so many people would call in sick, so it was like the black plague. Also police in Philadelphia coined the term in the 60’s because of all the shoppers made their job hard trying to control everyone. This term became more nationally used in the 80’s when companies would advertise coming out of the red with their sale on Friday.

My personal opinion of this holiday was misunderstood I thought, why do we as Americans go out and trample others for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what we already have. Moms will go out and fight to the death for that little doll for their daughter or a video game for their son. Then I went out and did research and realized that the sales are really all they are cracked up to be and everything will be gone if that opportunity is not taken. I noticed one major price deduction that affected me specifically in which gas was $2.99; I was conveniently on an empty tank so I took advantage of that. I thought I would just rant about Black Friday, but I ended up being a fan of it.