Black Friday has become a global phenomenon, but its roots lie in the United States.
In the United States, Black Friday is known as the day following Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving is typically one of the biggest shopping days of the year, but it was not always that way. In fact, it wasn’t until 1962 that retailers began to promote this shopping day in an effort to entice customers into stores.
The origins of Black Friday can be traced back to Philadelphia in 1876 when there was a fire at a department store called John Wanamaker’s. The fire was started by faulty electrical wiring and it spread quickly through the building, burning most of Wanamaker’s stock. People who came to help put out the fire also bought up whatever they could salvage from the burnt-out store. This practice became so popular that other stores started opening earlier than usual on Thanksgiving Day so people could buy more goods at discounted prices.
