They call it “Black Friday” because the day after Thanksgiving became notoriously crowded, chaotic, and difficult to police in 1950s–1960s Philadelphia, and only later did retailers spin it as the day they went “into the black” (into profit) for the year.

Quick Scoop: The Name

  • In the 1950s–60s, Philadelphia police started calling the day after Thanksgiving “Black Friday” because of terrible traffic jams, packed sidewalks, and extra-long, stressful shifts.
  • The city was flooded with shoppers and visitors coming for post‑Thanksgiving sales and the Army–Navy football game, and the term captured how grim the day felt for police and workers.

From Negative To Profitable

  • Local merchants disliked the gloomy sound of “Black Friday” and even tried to rebrand it as “Big Friday,” but that never really caught on.
  • In the 1980s, retailers popularized a new explanation: this was the day stores went from being “in the red” (losing money) to “in the black” (turning a profit), which helped turn the name into a positive marketing story.

Modern Meaning And Hype

  • Today, “Black Friday” generally means the big shopping day that kicks off the Christmas and holiday shopping season in the United States, known for deep discounts and doorbuster deals.
  • It has since spread globally and blurred into long sale periods (like “Black Friday Week” or even “Black November”), but the original nickname came from chaos and congestion, not from a happy profit milestone.

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