As Black Friday is the day many U.S. consumers typically begin their Christmas shopping, sales are heavily promoted by retailers throughout the country. Stores open very early and offer amazing incentives to draw people to their shops. The day after Thanksgiving has served as the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season for decades. The term "Black Friday" has only been traced back to the 1970s and did not achieve widespread use and popularity until 2002. The term Cyber Monday started in 2005 when Internet use and sales began booming. Retailers around the world started to wonder if shoppers had just suddenly given up on Christmas shopping. It was soon revealed that folks were shopping just using the new venue, the Internet. A whole new way to engage in holiday shopping had begun
As many die-hard shoppers still love to take part in Black Friday sales and deals, in 2002, online shops decided to use the following Monday as their "Shopping" day. The best deals online are saved for Cyber Monday.
So now, you have a choice, to avoid the hectic and stressful Christmas Rush on Black Friday, kick back, relax and wait for Monday. Bargains abound on the internet.
Here's how Black Friday really happened: According to the site, which specializes in "fictional urbanism," The City Desk.
Laurence H. Black was one of the best floor men in town, working in the men’s department of the old Osberger’s Department Store for over thirty years. He had been with the store since its humble beginnings as a menswear store on Richmond Avenue in the late 1920s. Except for a very brief stint in the service during World War II, he remained with the store as it grew, eventually settling into its later eight-floor retail palace on North Geary Street. Black was a fixture in the store, presiding over the suits, shirts, ties and millinery in his ever-present black suit (”That’s how they remember me. Black suit, Mr. Black, see?”) with a red carnation in the lapel. In a very cutthroat industry, his was one of those rare cases in which he was respected by everyone in the city’s retail trade, regardless of store affiliation. His reputation was even cemented throughout the region, as Osberger’s expanded in the 1950s and Mr. Black would often be called upon to train sellers at the various stores.
But it was the downtown store he loved the most. He was typically one of the first there in the morning (just behind Wharton Osberger) and one of the last to leave, which is exactly as it was on November 27, 1964. Toward the end of his twelve-hour shift, as the massive brass clock overlooking the restaurant in the store’s Grande Center Court read 7:48 pm, Laurence H. Black collapsed, felled by a heart attack. Old man Osberger closed the store the next day and clerks at the city’s other retail palaces wore black in tribute.
The following year, on the Friday after Thanksgiving, all of the employees wore black suits and dresses, highlighted by a single red carnation, with a moment of silence at 7:48 pm, a tradition that carried on year after year and was picked up by many other stores in the city. But, through many consolidations and sales and employee turnover and whatnot, the reason for the tribute and the tradition itself has been lost, save for a few old-timers who still remember. The small Osberger chain was dissolved in the early 1990s and the old parent company is now the owner of a chain of movie theaters in Australia. If you trace back through approximately fifteen mergers and acquisitions you’ll find that the old Osberger stores themselves are all now Macy’s.
:: RJ White
I loved this story and wanted to share it with you. At first, I thought it would be nice to feature a picture of Mr. Black along with his epitaph but extensive search online revealed 2 things....
1. The origin of this story is a very creative columnist who writes about a fictitious city in somewhere America. (It's just a neat story).
2. The story is mentioned 100's of times online with a thorough google search and has become the TRUTH in many cases.
Just because you read it online or heard it in a chat room, does not make it fact. More than one legend has been created from readings on the internet and this just might be one of them.....
Think about that the next time you pass-on something you found On Line!
BUT, there is a Santa, right?
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