By Michelle Wilson
Feature/Entertainment Editor
The deals are high, and the crowds are big. Shoppers are shoved from left to right. Stores are swarmed when the doors are opened but it is all worth it if you get the 50 percent off TV right? That’s the mindset of shoppers all around the country.
There are a lot of stories that are told about how Black Friday came about. Most notably that stores are “after an entire year of operating at a loss (“in the red”) stores would supposedly earn a profit (“went into the black”) on the day after Thanksgiving, because holiday shoppers blew so much money on discounted merchandise,” stated States History.com
“The first recorded use of the term ‘Black Friday’ was applied not to holiday shopping but to financial crisis: specifically, the crash of the U.S. gold market on September 24, 1869.” (History.com)
The story follows two Wall Street financiers, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk. It talks about how they worked together to buy up as much as they could of the nation’s gold, hoping to drive the price up and then sell it for a profit. Their plan was foiled, and it sent the market into a free-fall and bankrupting everyone.
Though the true story behind Black Friday starts back in the 1950s. It is what the police used to describe the hordes of shoppers and tourist for the big Army -Navy football game in Philadelphia. The police have to work and pull longer shifts due to the crowds. Shoplifters would take advantage of the crowds during this time stated History.com
After that the story was forgotten but the name stuck. The one-day sale has now morphed into a three to four-day sale that starts Thanksgiving night. Where stores advertise great deals that bring in hordes of people to the stores to fight over merchandise spanning everything from flash drives to flat screens. People can be seen standing in lines for hours waiting for the doors to open.
The mass numbers of crowds bring profits to stores but it also comes with some negative effects. The mobs and the fights over merchandise can cause injury to shoppers and employees. There is also shoplifters that try to pop off security tags and steal clothing, some even try running out with flat screen TVs. There is pushing, shoving and curse words being yelled at all ends of the store. There are shoppers that will try to assist others. Planning escape routes to make the situation go by smoothly.
While shopping it is safest to stay in groups, start early and have a battle plan. Get the ads, some of the ads even have a store map. Find the easiest route to the deals you want. Create a budget and stick to it. It is very easy to pile items that are not on your list in your cart. Go back to the stores the next day to find the items people picked up and left scattered throughout the store.