Happy Thanksgiving (USA)

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

Today has been Thanksgiving here in the USA...turkey, family, a couple of days off and of course now Black Friday shopping deals.

It has been a good day and as is my tradition, I try and say thanks for the people in my life so...thanks to the community of IIS...a great group people and a wonderful asset to those interested in Astronomy.

Clear Skies All!

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

What's the rationale behind day after US Thanksgiving (the Friday after the fourth Thursday) being called Black Friday? Just another excuse to go shopping?

Elsewhere Black Fridays are Friday the 13th.

[Kunama]

Hello Scott and a very Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. It is a holiday we here in Australia should embrace as well for we all ought to be thankful for living in this beautiful country with all that it offers.

[hobbit]

Originally Posted by mithrandir

What's the rationale behind day after US Thanksgiving (the Friday after the fourth Thursday) being called Black Friday? Just another excuse to go shopping?

Elsewhere Black Fridays are Friday the 13th.

From wikipedia
The earliest known use of "Black Friday" to refer to shopping on the day after Thanksgiving was made in a public relations newsletter from 1961 that is clear on the negative implications of the name and its origin in Philadelphia:

For downtown merchants throughout the nation, the biggest shopping days normally are the two following Thanksgiving Day. Resulting traffic jams are an irksome problem to the police and, in Philadelphia, it became customary for officers to refer to the post-Thanksgiving days as Black Friday and Black Saturday. Hardly a stimulus for good business, the problem was discussed by the merchants with their Deputy City Representative, Abe S. Rosen, one of the country's most experienced municipal PR executives. He recommended adoption of a positive approach which would convert Black Friday and Black Saturday to Big Friday and Big Saturday.[31]

[gary]

All the best to you and yours for Thanksgiving Scott!

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

Thanks All!

My understanding (maybe incorrect) is that most stores historically operated in the "red" (at a loss) until the sales revenue generated by the long holiday weekend which put them into the "black" (profitable). Hence the name...in an attempt to insure shopping traffic, shops began to offer discounts and special sales which has grown into the phenomenon we now see...

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

On the news this morning they showed an incident between a man and a woman fighting over a $5 barbie doll during the post Thanksgiving day Black Friday sales in the US. The women punched the guy in the face in an effort to get him to release or drop the boxed up doll. She was subsequently arrested but it wasn't just these two fighting for the same item. Human behaviour at its best.

[gregbradley]

Well that's fair enough as after all it was a Barbie doll for $5!

Greg.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Tonight's news has the Black Friday craziness spreading to the UK.

You'd think the damages caused would wipe out any profit the stores made. I can easily imaging their insurance companies declaring the sale an attractive nuisance and refusing to cover damage.