Black Friday, as the name for the big shopping day after U.S. Thanksgiving, started in the 1950s–1960s in Philadelphia, where police used the term to describe the heavy traffic and chaotic crowds that flooded the city the Friday after Thanksgiving. It did not become a nationwide, heavily marketed retail “holiday” until the 1980s, when retailers popularized the more positive idea that this was the day their accounts went “into the black” (profit).

Early origins

  • The first known use of “Black Friday” tied to the post‑Thanksgiving shopping rush comes from Philadelphia police in the 1950s and 1960s, who dreaded the gridlock and crowd control headaches that day.
  • Local media picked up the phrase, and it became a colloquial way in Philadelphia to describe the messy start of the holiday shopping season rather than a celebration of discounts.

Retail spin and national spread

  • In the 1970s–1980s, retailers outside Philadelphia began noticing the sales potential of the day after Thanksgiving, and marketing around “Black Friday” gradually spread across the U.S.
  • By the 1980s, retailers promoted a more upbeat explanation, claiming it was called Black Friday because it was the day their ledgers turned from red (loss) to black (profit), even though this story was largely a later marketing myth.

From local event to global phenomenon

  • The Friday after Thanksgiving had already functioned as the informal start of the U.S. holiday shopping season at least since the 1920s, helped by events like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, but it was not widely called “Black Friday” yet.
  • During the 1990s and 2000s, big‑box chains and then e‑commerce platforms pushed Black Friday with doorbusters and online deals, turning it into the busiest shopping day of the year in the U.S. and exporting the concept to countries such as Brazil, the U.K., Germany, South Africa, and others.

Timeline snapshot

  • 1950s–1960s: Philadelphia police use “Black Friday” for post‑Thanksgiving traffic and shopping chaos.
  • 1980s: Term spreads nationally; retailers adopt the “in the black” profit narrative and promote major sales.
  • 1990s–2000s: Becomes the biggest U.S. shopping day and expands internationally, later blending with online events like Cyber Monday and longer “Black November”‑style promotions.

TL;DR: The name “Black Friday” in the shopping sense began in 1950s–1960s Philadelphia, but the huge, marketing‑driven Black Friday that people know today really took off in the 1980s and exploded globally from the 1990s onward.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.