Connection Between Stamp Collecting and Black Friday

[youpiao]

While looking up the history of Black Friday, I came across this interesting factoid:

"In 1966, the Black Friday name became famous in print. That's when a story appeared in an ad in The American Philatelist, a stamp collectors' magazine. The Philadelphia Police Department used the name to describe the traffic jams and crowding in the downtown stores."

www.thebalance.com/what-is-the-history-of-black-friday-3305711

I wonder which stamp dealer was advertising a Black Friday sale. 

[angore]

Funny retailers have used Labor Day, Columbus Day, Halloween, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, and then Christmas sales followed by the post Christmas and now add Cyber Monday. If it were not for the holiday's they would not have a reason for a sale!

If there is a day there is an excuse for a sale.

[stampfan]

It was Apfelbaum.

www.thebalance.com/why-is-it-called-black-friday-3305712

[khj]

While Earl Apfelbaum did use the phrase "Black Friday" in a column in 1966 (not a paid advertisement), he was not the first to use in print the phrase "Black Friday" in reference to the Friday after Thanksgiving. There are plenty of examples, but here is a simple one in an article from a small town newspaper in 1962 (if I did this right, the term "Black Friday" should appear highlighted when you click on the link).

The Cherokeean 29Nov1962

There are also plenty of archived advertisements for special early-bird type sales from the early 1960s. However, I didn't spend time looking for one that specifically stated "Black Friday".

This is not an attempt to admonish any of our valued members here, and I certainly apologize if it appears that way. That is not my purpose. But... while the Apfelbaum family has made major positive contributions to philately, I'm just going to stick to my basic comment that today, anything that is claimed by the Apfelbaum family or attributed to the Apfelbaum family should be checked for validity, rather than assumed to be true. That goes with either positive or negative.

[stampfan]

Are you sure the sentence does not say Andra Crawford was with Kenny Black on Friday night? Everyone else gets a last name so why not poor old Kenny? I am not questioning that you are right about Apfelbaum's claims because all first claims are somewhat controversial especially with origins of terms and in the article he is saying that police officers used the term first. So Apfelbaum did not even make up the term so it is likely others printed it first. Still it is nice to have these kinds of articles mention stamp dealers and publications

[khj]

Nov 23, 2018 15:49:41 GMT -5 stampfan said:

Are you sure the sentence does not say Andra Crawford was with Kenny Black on Friday night?

Agreed! Leave it to me to pick the coincidental example! I was trying to avoid the coincidental examples of the October Black Friday!

[youpiao]

Nov 23, 2018 12:54:21 GMT -5 stampfan said:

It was Apfelbaum.

www.thebalance.com/why-is-it-called-black-friday-3305712

Funny, that's the same web site my article is from. In fact it's the same article only different. 

[mourningdoves]

OED's earliest citation is from 1960, in Women's Wear Daily. (All of their early citations are from metro New York - either retail/fashion trade mags or local newspapers.) There are a few theories about how that day got its ominous name; one that I've heard more than any others - which doesn't make it right but it rings true - is that many retail stores operated at a loss throughout most of the year, and the shopping surge on the infamous Friday turned their ledger books from red into black.

Merriam-Webster dates it to 1961, and also posits that it refers to the streets in urban shopping districts were "black with traffic". I hadn't heard that one, but Merriam-Webster must have a reason for including it.

Black Friday means many different things. It can be, f'rinstance, a final exam day, a stock market crash (that one goes back to the late 19th century, the time of the robber barons and of wild speculation followed by crushing financial hangovers), or - in one early Fifties case that OED suggests as a possible ancestor to the shopping-spree meaning, though I'm not clear on the connection - employees' penchant for calling in with assumed phantom illnesses that day so they could have a long weekend.

Word origins aren't a hobby or anything, but I spent about a decade as a data processor for a dictionary, and it becomes second nature. I try to avoid being a snot about it, and I think I'm usually successful, but a certain snottiness is almost built into the word game. It's a tough world out there, the world of word origins - I learned to have nerves of steel and reaction times of milliseconds, and never to walk unarmed past a bar full of linguistics majors. Ohhh, the degradation of it all....

Nov 23, 2018 7:35:06 GMT -5 angore said:

Funny retailers have used Labor Day, Columbus Day, Halloween, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, and then Christmas sales followed by the post Christmas and now add Cyber Monday. If it were not for the holiday's they would not have a reason for a sale!

If there is a day there is an excuse for a sale.

Unless you sell mattresses. Those guys never need an excuse.

[khj]

Yeah, it is certainly a minefield, as the term "Black Friday" has been used for different events of different days over history. Ignoring the Wallstreet October "Black Friday", and earlier usages, we do find the 3 more recent usages like the ones mentioned by mourningdoves.

1. First the referring to the tendency for employees to take Friday after Thanksgiving as a sick day -- not necessarily for shopping reasons. Earliest usage I've heard about (obviously not necessarily the really first usage):

WHAT TO DO ABOUT "FRIDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING"

"Friday-after-Thanksgiving-itis" is a disease second only to the bubonic
plague in its effects. At least that's the feeling of those who have to get
production out, when the "Black Friday" comes along. The shop may be half
empty, but every absentee was sick -- and can prove it.

What to do? Many companies have tried the standard device of denying
Thanksgiving Day pay to employees absent the day before and after the
holiday. Trouble is, you can't deny pay to those legitimately ill. But
what's legitimate? Tough to decide these days of often miraculously easy
doctors' certificates.

Glenn L. Martin, Baltimore aircraft manufacturer has another solution: When
you decide you want to sweeten up the holiday kitty, pick Black Friday to
add to the list. That's just what Martin has done. Friday after
Thanksgiving is the company's seventh paid holiday.

We're not suggesting more paid holidays just to get out of a hole. But, if
you can make a good trade in bargaining, there are lots of worse things than
having a holiday on a day that was half holiday anyway. Shouldn't cost too
much for that reason, either.

[From M.J. Murphy's "Tips to Good Human Relations for Factory Executives,"
*Factory Management and Maintenance* 109(11), 137, November 1951. Murphy
was the Industrial Relations Editor for the magazine; *Factory Management
and Maintenance* was published in New York City.]

Sorry, I don't have a pic/scan of the original article, just the quote.

2. The 1961 Miriam Webster reference to the "Black Friday" traffic would be attributed to the Philadelphia usage, and is mentioned by several sources in 1961-1962, including attempts by retailers to change it to "Big Friday" to eliminate the negative connotations. This usage was later referenced by Apfelbaum's article in 1966. Sorry, I don't have any quotes/pics/scans for those references.

3. When the usage "Black Friday" started for the after Thanksgiving sale, is a lot more fuzzy. It's a lot easier to search article text than it is to search advertisements.

Anyway, all in all, it's always good to see a philatelic connection as pointed out by youpiao and stampfan.

k