Black Friday – The Madness of a Lost Society

In the United States people celebrate Thanksgiving Day, on the fourth Thursday of November.

Traditionally, the beginning of the Christmas shopping season starts in the United States on Black Friday, the day following Thanksgiving Day. On this day, most retail shops open early to kick off the holiday shopping season, and they offer extreme promotional discounts.

Though Black Friday is not an official holiday, many non-retail employers give their employees the day off, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers.

The name “Black Friday” originated before 1961 in Philadelphia, after the disruptive movement of pedestrians and heavy vehicle traffic on the day-after Thanksgiving Day and used broadly in other regions around 1975. Later, a new explanation of the term started circulating: “Black Friday” indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit and are back in the black.

Earlier retailers opened shop on Black Friday at 6:00 a.m. However, in the late 2000s, many retailers opened their retail outlets at 5:00 a.m., and some opened at 4:00 a.m. In 2011 many retailers, including Target, Kohls, Macy’s, Best Buy, etc. opened at midnight. This year Walmart and several other retailers announced that they would open their stores at 8:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day that resulted in calls for a walkout among some workers.

Here is a video clip depicting the madness of the lost society. The scramble for goods they do not really need starts at the 48th second.