[paul cotter (OP)]

What is the origin of this "black Friday" nonsense? I know what the purpose is, namely to relieve customers of their hard earned cash.

[Origin]

What is the origin of this "black Friday" nonsense? I know what the purpose is, namely to relieve customers of their hard earned cash.

Black Friday was originally around the time of year that retailers would begin to go from red (no yearly profit) to black (a profitable year).

[Halc]

The origin is apparently a term the police used to describe the rise in crime in Philadelphia when the town filled with suburban shoppers and sports fans.
Later, the retailers decided to claim the term and put a better spin on it with the red-to-black ink thing that Origin mentions, supposedly the busiest shopping day of the year. It isn't. The busiest day is consistently the Saturday before Christmas. My mother worked retail and loved to work that day because you could shove any poor-selling product into a frantic man's hands and he'd buy it. Plenty of it was returned, but not all of it. Jewelry moves like crazy, and hardly discounted at all that day.  I digress.

The BF term has since been effectively trademarked into meaninglessness. All the days around it also have catchy names like 'cyber Monday', and now you see it used like 'Black Friday savings this week' even though it's say July. It now mostly just means 'save!' which is another totally meaningless word to add along with the other sure signs of lying such as 'those who switch' and 'up to'.

The fever peaked around 2019 with the stores being closed for preparation and then opening their doors earlier and earlier with a limited quantity of hot items to be claimed only by those first in line, forcing people to stand in line in freezing weather for hours. People started getting injured in the panic when the doors opened. Then covid hit, and suddenly the big stores all backed off and just had good deals running all that week, and not all at the same time. Sanity has been restored. I tend to avoid the stores on that day, but it's not so bad anymore if you don't.

[alancalverd]

The term originated in the USA as the day after Thanksgiving. A good time to shift summer stock and encourage early buying for Christmas whilst folk are in a holiday mood.

As far as the UK is concerned, it is as meaningless as "New Improved Original".