Every year on the day after Thanksgiving, millions of shoppers descend on stores and websites in pursuit of Black Friday deals and early-holiday bargains. But why is it called Black Friday? What does the “black” refer to, and how did this day become the unofficial kickoff of the holiday shopping season?
In this article we’ll explore the origin of Black Friday, examine the competing theories behind the phrase “Black Friday – why is it called black?”, and trace how the term Black Friday evolved into the biggest shopping day of the year for many retail stores and for online shopping alike.
What is Black Friday and when is it?
The phrase Black Friday refers to the Friday immediately following the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. It is often described as the busiest shopping day of the year, when traditional brick-and-mortar retail stores and online retailers unleash heavy discounts and promotions, aiming to capture the bulk of consumer impulses as the holiday shopping season begins.
On this day of the year, stores hope to convert the heightened consumer activity into strong revenue, often tailoring Black Friday sales and limited-time events. In recent decades, the rise of online shopping has broadened the event beyond physical stores, but the core remains the Friday after Thanksgiving—so the question lingers: why is it called Black Friday?
The Philadelphia origin: crowds, traffic and football
A compelling version of the origin of Black Friday points to its roots in the 1950s and 1960s in Philadelphia. According to historical records, police officers and other workers in Philadelphia began referring to the Friday after Thanksgiving as “Black Friday” because of the chaos that accompanied the annual influx of people.
Why so much chaos? Partly because the city hosted the annual Army–Navy football game on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so on the Friday ahead the city saw a steady stream of suburban shoppers, tourists and football-fans arriving early. This surge created heavy traffic jams, packed retail districts, extra demand on public services, and more crime or shoplifting incidents.
Local businesses and the police thus began using the term “Black Friday” to refer to that hectic Friday: the day that preceded the big game and kicked off intense shopping. Retailers tried to rebrand the day as “Big Friday”, but the name stuck.
So, in this view, black does not originally mean profit or sales—it meant a troublesome day for the city’s infrastructure. When someone asks why is it called Black Friday, this Philadelphia origin is often the most accurate explanation.
The red ink to black ink myth: retailers’ spin
Over time, another explanation emerged to answer why is it called Black Friday, one that retailers loved. According to this popular version, stores operated “in the red” (meaning losing money) for most of the year, and finally on the Friday after Thanksgiving they would move “into the black” (making a profit). Thus the “black” in “Black Friday” referred to the ink used in financial ledgers to denote profit.
While this makes for a neat story, historians generally label it a marketing narrative rather than the true origin. The Britannica article states that the red-to-black explanation is widely believed but incorrect as the main root.
By the 1980s retail associations had embraced that narrative and promoted the term to highlight the importance of the day for turning a profit and marking the start of the holiday season.
So when you hear someone say “Black Friday is called that because stores finally go into the black”, you’re hearing a later evolution of the meaning, not the original one.
Other theories: calling-in-sick, factory workers and early references
Beyond those two main versions, there are other lesser-known or less credible theories about why the day after Thanksgiving is referred to as Black Friday. For example, some sources claim that factory workers and other employees routinely called in sick on the Friday after Thanksgiving so they could have an extended weekend of shopping, which caused employers and managers to refer to it as a “black” day for labour productivity.
Similarly, some early corporate or factory-management and maintenance newsletters in the 1950s noted increased absenteeism the day after Thanksgiving, further associating the date with disruption rather than retail profits.
While these theories have some anecdotal basis, they lack the consistent documentary backing of the Philadelphia traffic-congestion origin or the later retail “in the black” narrative. That said, they underscore that the term “Black Friday” has been used in multiple overlapping settings: for factory management, shift-work problems, retail crowds and logistics headaches.
How did Black Friday transform into the biggest shopping day?
Once the term “Black Friday” became attached to the Friday after Thanksgiving, it aligned naturally with the beginning of the holiday shopping season. Many retailers realised that with millions of Americans off work on Friday or using the weekend after Thanksgiving to begin gift-buying, the day was ideal for launching advertised Black Friday dealsand driving a surge in foot traffic and online sales.
Retailers started opening earlier, offering door-buster specials, and advertising limited-time offers both in-store and online. This established the day as one of the most important for retail revenues. Over time it became described as the busiest shopping day of the year for many retailers in the U.S.
Meanwhile, the rise of online shopping broadened the scope: now shoppers can access Black Friday offers from their homes, sometimes starting on Thanksgiving itself, and often continuing through Cyber Monday and beyond. The growth of e-commerce also meant that the day of the year when sales spike has shifted in some contexts, though Black Friday remains a benchmark for heavy promotional activity.
Further, events like Small Business Saturday (the Saturday after) and Cyber Monday effectively extended the retail push beyond just one day, but Black Friday remains the anchor.
Thus, the term Black Friday came to be intimately linked to the idea of holiday shopping, retail stores launching their biggest sales, and the mix of in-store and online sales that drives the day.
This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)
