Thanksgiving - Black Friday conspiracy (first post on Reddit ever and a friendly joke)

38  2017-11-24 by IslandThrowaway88

Does anyone find it suspicious (perhaps even conspiratorial) that in America; Black Friday is after Thanks giving?

Did the greedy powers that be, specifically pick that after a day of giving thanks for everything you have; a day of sales, where people are willing to trample over each other to death for things that they don't need?'

Does anyone else imagine someone in those glass towers cackling away at the irony while they clear out old inventory?

P.S Happy Thanksgiving! - And good Black Friday savings! I am thankful for /r/conspiracy for keeping it real over the years (at least the real side)

Get fat and keep fighting the good fight my friends.

24 comments

1  lordbananafist 2017-11-24

Yes. Cultural Marxism.

1  mastigia 2017-11-24

Speaking of black friday conspiracies, it just dawned on me the other day that those first people in line pitching tents hella early are probably paid by the stores to do so, in many cases.

Happy Tday mang.

1  mconeone 2017-11-24

You underestimate those with too much time and too little money.

1  Brodusgus 2017-11-24

Why do you think the department store Macys sponsors the parade?

1  IslandThrowaway88 2017-11-24

ummmm...for...thankfulness? /facetious

I never put that into the perspective but..no doubt.

1  A__Waws321 2017-11-24

We have lots of parades during Mardi Gras and they are self sponsored by the organizations and individuals. I think the day after Thanksgiving gives a point to start Christmas holidays.

Call it commercial or not some people love the excitement of shopping for just the right thing at a discount. Some just love the day off to do shopping. I am not one of those but am fine with each doing their on thing.

1  mousetaco 2017-11-24

Apparently McDonalds sponsors the Chicago parade. At a friend's place today in Queens and was flipping through channels and saw it.

1  brock_lee 2017-11-24

I'm 51 and "after thanksgiving sales" have been a thing as long as I can remember. Its just the traditional holiday shopping kickoff. It got the name black Friday a while back, and it started as a negative. Anyone who tells you the nonesense that its the day retailers move "into the black" believed the horseshit. The sakes used to start "early" at like 6 am. As with everything, its ballooned to starting halfway through Thanksgiving day.

1  A__Waws321 2017-11-24

I am 61 and it has been Black Friday for as long as I remember. How exactly do you think it started as a negative?

1  brock_lee 2017-11-24

Around the same time, the terms "Black Friday" and "Black Saturday" came to be used by the police in Philadelphia and Rochester to describe the crowds and traffic congestion accompanying the start of the Christmas shopping season.

Use of the phrase spread slowly, first appearing in The New York Times on November 29, 1975, in which it still refers specifically to "the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year" in Philadelphia. Although it soon became more widespread, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 1985 that retailers in Cincinnati and Los Angeles were still unaware of the term.[82]

As the phrase gained national attention in the early 1980s, merchants objecting to the use of a derisive term to refer to one of the most important shopping days of the year suggested an alternative derivation: 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.

So, it started in Philadelphia in the 60's because of the congestion it caused. But use of the term spread slowly. It was still unknown as a term in LA in the mid 80's. And, as mentioned, retailers came up with an alternative because they didn't like the negative association.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)

1  HelperBot_ 2017-11-24

Non-Mobile link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping

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1  A__Waws321 2017-11-24

I still don't understand the negative association.
My aunts and mother sat around on Thanksgiving wishing the stores would open so they could do something besides watch football.

I remember Black Friday and the explanation of stores making the bulk of there money as a teenager.

1  brock_lee 2017-11-24

I'm sure you don't because that never started until, the 80s.

1  Little-nug 2017-11-24

This is why I hate all fucking holidays. Capitalism took hold of traditions. Nothing has meaning anymore. We stuff our faces with food everyday, and on holidays we do the same but to an extreme. I hate the greedy bastards who made everyone into consuming and destructive machines. Fuck your holidays.

1  IslandThrowaway88 2017-11-24

I agree from the materialist point of view, but you can make it what you like with the people you share it with.

I'm Canadian, so its not technically mine tonight - I just use it as an excuse to cook a turkey and pretend I'm American. :P

Take some time out of the world for you and what matters, is all it is to me. Cheers!

1  ignorethislunatic 2017-11-24

Do they have Black Friday in Canada or does it start on a different date?

1  IslandThrowaway88 2017-11-24

Some places have a 'Black Friday weekend sale' or something of the like. Its unofficial but adopted among the large chains and businesses willing to compete. I'm not sure the savings have ever been enough to cause death by trampling though here.

1  UltravioletFlamingo 2017-11-24

Please do your best "American" impression on our Thanksgiving. As an American, I like to apologize a lot on Canadian Thanksgiving, starting with an apology for not realizing it's Canada's Thanksgiving until I saw it briefly mentioned online that morning.

1  IslandThrowaway88 2017-11-24

I'm not sure there's all that much difference between the two other than the dates. People eat Turkey, you see all the family members who tell the same story every time they see you once a year etc and need to drink to cope.

TBH I wish I were an American. :P Politically I do not identify as Canadian really so...apologies for falling short of a Canadians caricature of an American type thing lol.

1  ENDLESSBLOCKADEZ 2017-11-24

a+

1  red13blue4 2017-11-24

Capitalism is Satanism.

1  bergmanu 2017-11-24

Support slavery in China day.

1  StephCurryMustard 2017-11-24

I worked several black Fridays over my illustrious retail career and nothing is cheaper, they actually jack up the prices. Any one out shopping on black Friday is an idiot.

1  Fatha_Naycha 2017-11-24

Lots of companies have to pay additional taxes on items in their warehouses at the end of a year.

1  A__Waws321 2017-11-24

We have lots of parades during Mardi Gras and they are self sponsored by the organizations and individuals. I think the day after Thanksgiving gives a point to start Christmas holidays.

Call it commercial or not some people love the excitement of shopping for just the right thing at a discount. Some just love the day off to do shopping. I am not one of those but am fine with each doing their on thing.