An Introduction to Black Friday, a Special Day for Shopping

With the holidays quickly approaching, we find shoppers saving their money for the special deals that will arise at dusk on the day of Thanksgiving. Black Friday has become a pastime for Americans nationwide. Popular shopping places, such as shopping malls, outlet stores, and shopping strips, become flooded with people. There is an extremely evident difference between the mall on Black Friday and any other day.

We begin seeing Black Friday commercials on TV and even hearing them on the radio as early as late September, or even early October if we're lucky. These commercials advertise extremely inexpensive prices on every-day items and luxuries that are normally extremely expensive. For example, an Apple iPad that would normally be around five hundred dollars would be on sale for two hundred dollars. Or, if you're really lucky, maybe even one fifty. Groups of friends and families leave their houses on Thanksgiving with a full stomach and a full wallet, ready to shop.

But the question is: What is so black about this Friday? Thanksgiving colors include burgundies, browns, and shades of orange, while Christmas colors cast red and green. So where does this black come from? Well, the reason the Friday after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday is because it is a day known for violence and traffic accidents because there are so many swarms of people everywhere. Or at least, that's how it started out. "The Philadelphia Police Department coined the phrase to describe the mayhem surrounding the congestion of pedestrian and auto traffic in the Center City downtown area" (Amadeo 2014). Or the name Black Friday is sufficient in the fact that the violence that breaks out on these special days results in the black eyes of many people, even deaths.

On, say, a regular Friday, we may see shoppers in stores, not crowded, going about their business leisurely. Taking their time looking at clothing and items, playing with displays, and shopping is a timely act. Depending on the time of day, the food court may be bustling with the laughter, cries, and smiles of the people eating their food, perhaps taking a break from their shopping. Some teenagers even just go to the mall for fun—to hang out—not shop or buy anything. merely occupying space. On Black Friday, there is no room to walk, stand, shop, or breathe. Coming from someone who shops at the mall on a regular basis and who has also been in attendance at the last three Black Fridays, let me be the first to tell you that shopping is one of the last things being done.

On Black Friday, people are fighting over clothes, stampeding into stores, and tearing down displays and racks alike. The atmosphere is completely different on a regular mall shopping day than on Black Friday. I remember back in September of 2014, when I went to Atlanta, Georgia, with my friend Natalie from Canada to visit our friend Nicole. In Atlanta, we went to a music festival called Music Midtown. I have never felt so claustrophobic and compressed in my entire life. I had no space to move around, to breathe, or to stretch my body. This experience is the only parallel I can draw to the craziness and congestion of Black Friday.

Although Black Friday may be a day for fright or early holiday cheer, we find it returning every single year. With a different atmosphere and different interactions, Black Friday extremely differs from a typical Friday at the mall. But you know what? I'm on a budget, so I'll make my way out on this Black Friday and pray I make it out alive.

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