Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is a nation wide day to kickoff Christmas shopping. The day’s name originated in Philadelphia, where it was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Later, in 1975 an alternative explanation was made that retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss from January through November, and “Black Friday” indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or “in the black.”

It was not until the early 2000’s that Black Friday started becoming such a huge deal-saving, sleepless day. For many years, retailers wouldn’t open doors until 6:00 or 7:00 am, but by the late 2000’s, some had crept up to 5:00 or 6:00 am. ‘Early bird’ specials were literally for the earliest rising ‘birds’ when opening doors early was taken to a new extreme. In 2011, Wal-Mart and many other retailers opened doors at midnight, but the following year, some stores opened at as early as 8:00 pm on Thanksgiving Day!

Black Friday shopping is known for attracting aggressive crowds, with assaults, shootings, and many cases of people trampling on other shoppers in an attempt to get the best deal on a product before supplies run out. Many shoppers and their children are mauled on numerous occasions such as being pushed when doors open, going after a certain popular item, or even just standing there.

Many retailors have stopped closing doors and started putting items on sale at a certain time to keep these incidents from happening. It has not only given the retailors more business, but it is now a better environment for their shoppers to shop in.