I always thought that the term Black Friday, originated when retail firms turned “red” to “black”. Due to the heavy seasonality in sales, the existence of this term always made sense, especially for Retail firms.
Through Kevin Drum at Mother Jones, I learned that history is more complicated.
But, most interesting for the readers of this blog:
The term originated in Philadelphia, probably sometime in the 50s, and wasn’t in common use in the rest of the country until decades later.
From Wanamaker’s Department Stores to trying to Amazon HQ2 to Philly, Retail has changed a lot here.