Do you know why this Friday-after-Thanksgiving is known as “Black Friday?” Unlike most things with the label “black,” it has nothing to do with race and racism.
It dates back to the days when bookkeeping was done with quill pens. When a business was operating at a loss they used red ink to signal that state. When the business was earning a profit the ink used was black.
Historically Christmas shopping begins in earnest on the day after Thanksgiving. Many retail businesses do a substantial fraction of their total year’s sales in the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Black Friday got its name because, in retailing, that was the day your store began to move from operating at a loss (in the red) into operating at a profit (in the black) for the year.
The so-called “Christmas sales season” was and perhaps still is the key to retail profitability, and it now spills over into online sales. Retail establishments are scaled to cope with the anticipated Christmas rush. Most of the year, they are larger than their day-to-day business would require.
