Tomorrow, millions of Americans will gather together with their families and enjoy eating too much while watching football before eventually passing out due to the overindulgence of tryptophan and alcohol.
Tomorrow, another set of Americans with be camped out in a sea of other like-minded fanatics in a parking lot waiting to spend their small amount of hard-earned dollars.
However, this second group of people won’t be occupying Wall Street. They’ll be occupying Target, Best Buy, Walmart and many other retail outlets across the country for Black Friday.
While many seem to associate Black Friday with sadness and mayhem — the managers at my old job went as far as to change the name to Green Friday to make it seem happier — the “holiday” is actually named for the accounting practice.
When a company keeps its books, it writes losses in red and profits in black. Generally, holiday shopping is the time of year stores finally start to turn a profit.
Therefore, the day after Thanksgiving has become synonymous with officially starting the holiday season (and holiday shopping) and has earned the name “Black