This is kind of a “passing the week . . .” post but first I wanted to put a collection of history tidbits and info out there for you. At the end or after you’ll find a links to a few post of interest.

The idea behind the term “Black Friday” is that this is the day in which retail stores have enough sales to put them “in the black” – an accounting expression that alludes to the practice of recording losses in red and profits in black.

So where did the term “Black Friday” come from?

In 1975 the shopping craze that followed Thanksgiving turned into Black Friday, in reference to the hectic crowds and horrendous traffic. Despite a slipping economy shoppers still came out in full force that year and caused several newspapers to call the day ‘Black Friday’, and thus the tradition began.

The earliest uses of “Black Friday” come from or reference Philadelphia and refer to the heavy traffic on that day, an implicit comparison to the extremely stressful and chaotic experience of Black Tuesday (the 1929 stock-market crash). The earliest known reference to “Black Friday” (in this sense), refers to Black Friday 1965 and makes the Philadelphia origin explicit:

JANUARY 1966 — “Black Friday” is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It is not a term of endearment to them. “Black Friday” officially opens the Christmas shopping season in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing.

The term Black Friday began to get wider exposure around 1975, as shown by two newspaper articles from November 29, 1975, both datelined from Philadelphia. The first reference is in an article entitled “Army vs. Navy: A Dimming Splendor,” in The New York Times:

“Philadelphia police and bus drivers call it “Black Friday” – that day each year between Thanksgiving Day and the Army-Navy game. It is the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year in the Bicentennial City as the Christmas list is checked off and the Eastern college football season nears conclusion.”

The derivation is also clear in an Associated Press article entitled “Folks on Buying Spree Despite Down Economy,” which ran in the Titusville Herald on the same day:

Store aisles were jammed. Escalators were nonstop people. It was the first day of the Christmas shopping season and despite the economy, folks here went on a buying spree. … “That’s why the bus drivers and cab drivers call today ‘Black Friday,’” a sales manager at Gimbels said as she watched a traffic cop trying to control a crowd of jaywalkers. “They think in terms of headaches it gives them.”

It is an Accounting practice:

            Look up in the red, in the black in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Many merchants objected to the use of a negative term to refer to one of the most important shopping days in the year. By the early 1980s, an alternative theory began to be circulated: that retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss for most of the year (January through November) and made their profit during the holiday season, beginning on the day after Thanksgiving. When this would be recorded in the financial records, once-common accounting practices would use red ink to show negative amounts and black ink to show positive amounts. Black Friday, under this theory, is the beginning of the period where retailers would no longer have losses (the red) and instead take in the year’s profits (the black). The earliest known use, found by Bonnie Taylor-Blake, is from 1981, and presents the “black ink” theory as one of several competing possibilities.

The day after Thanksgiving in the United States. Retailers generally see an upward spike in sales and consider this to be the start of the holiday shopping season.

Historically Black Fridays have never been good events. History has shown many ‘Black’ days, most with dire consequences.

1.      A day of stock market catastrophe. Originally, September 24, 1869, was deemed Black Friday. The crash was sparked by gold speculators, including Jay Gould and James Fist, who attempted to corner the gold market. The attempt failed and the gold market collapsed, causing the stock market to plummet.

2.      The term “black” has been used to describe other disastrous days in financial markets. For example, on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the market fell precipitously, signaling the start of the Great Depression.

3.      Black Friday in January 1939 refers to Australia’s day of horrible and devastating fires.

4.      The largest one-day drop in stock market history occurred on Black Monday, October 19, 1987, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted more than 22%.

So what happened this time around? With the economy the way it is many are concerned. Businesses wondering about their sales (many make 30% of their income during this month) and the rest wondering about the economy.

Well I am currently working for a Toy distributor (I even worked yesterday) and the rumor from the “big boss” is that their stores reported higher sales Friday than in past “Black Fridays”.

Early data show strong Black Friday

Shoppers, clerks say ‘Black Friday’ crowds seem lighter

Is Black Friday worth it?

taxguy has a few mentions this week (and I would like to point out, it is “taxguy” not Taxguy, or Tax Guy or whatever else has been put out just plain and simple, no caps one word taxguy. Why? The same reason I guess a parent names a child Elizabeth and demands people call her Elizabeth and not Lisa, or Beth.)

Issue #4: Dr. Tax-O-Sphere, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Tax Code including pictures of your favorite tax bloggers.

Macho Macho tax blogs describes a site that shows you the chances in a blog (of a blog) if the author is male. As Joe points out it isn’t very accurate as it shows a few females bloggers ( including “Taxgirl”) as being “manly”. Although I question the overall findings, I found it interesting the score taxguy was given.

Friday inspiration: Facing an ugly reality and making changes. A mess I am in and trying to fix. An interview that I am now grateful I participated in and would encourage others to take part in this. The questions are pretty basic for everyone, if you can answer them, please respond to the request that is at the end of the post/interview.

And the Nominees for 2008 Twelve Blogs of Christmas are -

Okay enough about taxguy. . .

What the government should be doing during a recession

Tax Tips, Rates and Brackets for 2009 Returns

GREED IS THE WORD

Russia to Cut Corporate Taxes, Washington Dithers