5 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Black Friday and Its History

Black Friday - for the modern American, the Friday after Thanksgiving is all about the sweet deals and discounts to buy the stuff they normally wouldn't due to budget constraints.

However, Black Friday doesn't always mean camping outside stores to be among the first in line to buy discounted items, appliances, and electronics. Sometimes, it meant being bankrupt or being scammed by artificial price increases.

Here are some things you probably didn't know about Black Friday and its history:

The First Black Friday Caused Everyone To Be Bankrupt

The first use of the term "Black Friday" occurred during the 1800s, when American Wal Street financiers Jay Gould and Jim Fisk bought a significant portion of the country's gold to drive up the price, per Fox News.

Unfortunately, they couldn't re-sell the gold at the inflated prices they planned for. The US government at the time discovered their scheme on Friday, Sept. 24, 1869, and decided to flood the market with gold to solve the problem, per BBC.

However, with the supply of gold overwhelming its demand, its price eventually reached a point where many investors lost significant amounts of their fortunes. This decline caused the stock market to plummet by 20%, making everyone - from the Wall Street millionaires to the poor - bankrupt.

Sept. 24, 1869, then became the first "Black Friday," and the term was then created to signify how disastrous the events of that day were to the country's economy.

Philadelphia Police Officers First Popularized The Term Black Friday

However, people eventually forgot the meaning of Black Friday to the point that police officers in Philadelphia in 1950 used the term to describe the day after Thanksgiving.

For a bit of context, at this time, people were taking the chance to get their shopping done in the city in advance before the big Army-Navy football game on that Saturday every year, per History.

The sudden increase of people during this day required all police officers to be present to keep the peace, preventing them from taking that day off and working extra long shifts. They eventually called that day "Black Friday" to prepare them for the long day ahead.

Retailers weren't happy to be associated with such a negative term and tried to call the day "Big Friday" instead. However, "Black Friday" remained the de facto term to describe the day.

Black Friday Caught On During The 90s

The term "Black Friday" didn't become as widespread as it is today until the 90s, and by then, retailers had already changed the negative connotation of the term into something positive. During the 1980s, they were able to change the meaning of the term to mark the day when America's stores could finally turn a profit.

The story clicked with the people at the time and spread from Trenton, New Jersey, and eventually, beyond. When the 90s came, everyone was talking about Black Friday.

Some Black Friday Deals Are Scams

Despite this positive spin on the otherwise negative term, some retailers chose to further take advantage of the event by artificially inflating their items' prices to further profit from the resulting sales.

According to US News, a study from WalletHub market research firm found that 14% of products have prices on Black Friday similar to their normal in-store costs, while 17% of items are more expensive on Black Friday than on Amazon.

Product sellers could increase the price of a product before slapping a discount rate on it to give consumers a sense of agency when in truth, they will be paying the product's full price without knowing it, per the Center for the Study of Services' report on deceptive advertising.

Black Friday Deals Can Be Enjoyed Online

Thankfully, people don't have to camp outside stores for long hours to be first in line anymore. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and advancements in technology, people can instead do their Black Friday shopping online and even ahead of time due to discounts dropping before the actual day.

We here at iTechPost wrote about many of these online discounts, so if you're looking for coffee makers, smartphones, kitchen appliances, and other items on sale for Black Friday and Thanksgiving week, head onto our guide to know more about them.