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National
Spotted: Early Black
What's The Real History Of Black Friday?
Friday Apple Deals You
Don't Want To Miss
The retail bonanza known as Black Friday is now an in- tegral part of many Thanks- giving celebrations, but this holiday tradition has darker roots than you might imagine.
The first recorded use of the term “Black Friday” was applied not to holiday shop- ping but to financial crisis: specifically, the crash of the U.S. gold market on Septem- ber 24, 1869. Two notoriously ruthless Wall Street finan- ciers, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, worked together to buy up as much as they could of the nation’s gold, hoping to drive the price sky-high and sell it for astonishing profits. On that Friday in September, the conspiracy finally unrav- eled, sending the stock market into free-fall and bankrupting everyone from Wall Street barons to farmers.
The most commonly repeated story behind the post-Thanksgiving shopping- related Black Friday tradition links it to retailers. As the story goes, 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 holi- day shoppers blew so much money on discounted mer- chandise. Though it’s true that retail companies used to record losses in red and prof- its in black when doing their accounting, this version of Black Friday’s origin is the of- ficially sanctioned—but inac- curate—story behind the tradition.
In recent years, another myth has surfaced that gives a particularly ugly twist to the tradition, claiming that back in the 1800s Southern planta- tion owners could buy slaves at a discount on the day after Thanksgiving. Though this version of Black Friday’s roots has understandably led some to call for a boycott of the re- tail holiday, it has no basis in fact.
The true story behind Black Friday, however, is not as sunny as retailers might have you believe. Back in the 1950s, police in the city of Philadelphia used the term to describe the chaos that en- sued on the day after Thanks- giving, when hordes of suburban shoppers and
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are almost here, but we found a deal that’s too good to wait for. The 19th day of our 30 Days of Savings event with Walmart includes a discount on a tried and trusted iPhone.
The Straight Talk Apple iPhone 6s 32GB pre-paid smartphone normally retails for $300, but you can get it on sale for just $150 at Walmart right now in space gray or rose gold. That’s 50% off the original price — a steep mark- down for rarely-on-sale Apple products.
If you need a refresher, the iPhone 6s has a 4.7-inch Retina HD display, FaceTime HD camera, Touch ID and still fits in the back pocket of your jeans comfortably (which can’t be said for some of the larger, more recent iPhone models).
It makes a great gift for older parents or grandparents who want a fuss-free way to FaceTime, or as a present for tweens and older kids who are ready for their first “real” phones.
Maybe you want some- thing a little more advanced?
We’ve spotted several noteworthy deals on newer iPhone models, like up to $450 in eGift cards on the iPhone XS, $400 in eGift cards on the iPhone XS Max or iPhone XR and $300 in eGift cards on the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11
Pro Max.
All of the deals above are
live at Walmart right now. Looking to upgrade your
Apple accessories?
Walmart also has the best
pre-Black Friday deal on Apple AirPods we’ve seen so far. These AirPods (with the charging case) were previ- ously on sale for $144, but were just marked down an ad- ditional $5 and are currently down to just $139 at Walmart.
Want more deals? Check out these other major savings at Walmart going on right now:
Normally $450 this LG 55- inch Class 4K Ultra HD Smart LED HDR TV is on sale for $367.
These Frida Kahlo and Rosa Parks Barbie Dolls from the “Inspiring Women” collec- tion normally retails for $60 but you can get both of them for just $30.
Save on this $35 ScentSa- tionals five-piece oil diffuser gift set and get it for $20 today.
Give the gift of comfort with this Fruit of the Loom sleep set. Originally $17 get it on sale for $15.
People crowd the aisles inside Walmart on Black Friday.
tourists flooded into the city in advance of the big Army- Navy football game held on that Saturday every year. Not only would Philly cops not be able to take the day off, but they would have to work extra-long shifts dealing with the additional crowds and traffic. Shoplifters would also take advantage of the bedlam in stores to make off with merchandise, adding to the law enforcement headache.
By 1961, “Black Friday” had caught on in Philadel- phia, to the extent that the city’s merchants and boosters tried unsuccessfully to change it to “Big Friday” in order to remove the negative connota- tions. The term didn’t spread to the rest of the country until much later, however, and as recently as 1985 it wasn’t in common use nationwide.
Sometime in the late 1980s, however, retailers found a way to reinvent Black Friday and turn it into some- thing that reflected positively, rather than negatively, on them and their customers. The result was the “red to black” concept of the holiday mentioned earlier, and the
notion that the day after Thanksgiving marked the oc- casion when America’s stores finally turned a profit. (In fact, stores traditionally see bigger sales on the Saturday before Christmas.)
The Black Friday story stuck, and pretty soon the term’s darker roots in Philadelphia were largely for- gotten. Since then, the one- day sales bonanza has morphed into a four-day event, and spawned other “re- tail holidays” such as Small Business Saturday/Sunday and Cyber Monday. Stores started opening earlier and earlier on that Friday, and now the most dedicated shop- pers can head out right after their Thanksgiving meal.
According to a pre-holiday survey this year by the Na- tional Retail Federation, an estimated 135.8 million Americans definitely plan to shop over the Thanksgiving weekend (58.7 percent of those surveyed), though even more (183.8 million, or 79.6 percent) said they would or might take advantage of the online deals offered on Cyber Monday.
PAGE 8-B FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2019