black friday chat

[DS]

why the hell is it called black friday?
sounds kinda morbid

[DS]

chat about anything?

[DS]

ok I give up

[dannyboy]

somebody go in there and talk to ds. i went in for a chat, all he said was "great....i get you". i think he was wanting someone more exciting?

d

[chev]

Originally Posted by DS

why the hell is it called black friday?
sounds kinda morbid

Taken from Wiki........
Origin of the name "Black Friday"

The earliest uses of "Black Friday" come from or reference Philadelphia and refer to the heavy traffic on that day, an implicit comparison to the extremely stressful and chaotic experience of Black Tuesday (the 1929 stock-market crash). The earliest known reference to "Black Friday" (in this sense), found by Bonnie Taylor-Blake of the American Dialect Society, refers to Black Friday 1965 and makes the Philadelphia origin explicit:

JANUARY 1966 -- "Black Friday" is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It is not a term of endearment to them. "Black Friday" officially opens the Christmas shopping season in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing.[11]

The term Black Friday began to get wider exposure around 1975, as shown by two newspaper articles from November 29, 1975, both datelined Philadelphia. The first reference is in an article entitled "Army vs. Navy: A Dimming Splendor," in The New York Times:

Philadelphia police and bus drivers call it "Black Friday" - that day each year between Thanksgiving Day and the Army-Navy game. It is the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year in the Bicentennial City as the Christmas list is checked off and the Eastern college football season nears conclusion.

The derivation is also clear in an Associated Press article entitled "Folks on Buying Spree Despite Down Economy," which ran in the Titusville Herald on the same day:

Store aisles were jammed. Escalators were nonstop people. It was the first day of the Christmas shopping season and despite the economy, folks here went on a buying spree. ... "That's why the bus drivers and cab drivers call today 'Black Friday,'" a sales manager at Gimbels said as she watched a traffic cop trying to control a crowd of jaywalkers. "They think in terms of headaches it gives them."

Accounting practice

Many merchants objected to the use of a negative term to refer to one of the most important shopping days in the year.[12] By the early 1980s, an alternative theory began to be circulated: 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. When this would be recorded in the financial records, once-common accounting practices would use red ink to show negative amounts and black ink to show positive amounts. Black Friday, under this theory, is the beginning of the period where retailers would no longer have losses (the red) and instead take in the year's profits (the black). The earliest known use, again found by Bonnie Taylor-Blake, is from 1981, again from Philadelphia, and presents the "black ink" theory as one of several competing possibilities:
You asked for it.

[dilligaf]

Originally Posted by DS

why the hell is it called black friday?
sounds kinda morbid

After what happened yesterday it's no wonder why they call it black fri.

[upsgrunt]

What happened Dill?

[UpstateNYUPSer]

Originally Posted by upsgrunt

What happened Dill?

I think she was referring to the Walmart tragedy.

[PassYouBy]

http://www.examiner.com/a-1716456~Sought__Wal_Mart_shoppers_who_trampled_NY_ worker.html?cid=rss-Top_News

[brownhorn]

That story explains why I not only volunteer to work on Black Friday, I demand my 8 hour guarantee. You would find me at an OU pep rally (HOOK EM HORNS!) sooner than you would find me at a mall or Wal Mart on Black Friday! People are nuts on that day.

[local804]

Only in NY!!!!

[UpstateNYUPSer]

Originally Posted by local804

Only in NY!!!!

Downstate NY!!

[dilligaf]

Originally Posted by UpstateNYUPSer

I think she was referring to the Walmart tragedy.

That is correct Upstate. Walmart and Toys R Us. Absolutely senseless. These people aught to have been taken out to the woodshed and had some sense beaten into them at an early age.

[dannyboy]

dill

in this world we now live in, it the "its all about me" syndrome.

example. just got back from cracker barrel. was watching as a car waited to let another car out of the parking area in front of the store. the people were very patient as the guy was elderly and very slow.

as the car finally got backed out and started to move forward, some knucklehead came from the other direction and cut the people that had been waiting off.

it goes back to the marketing and lack of manners. a i am going to get mine regardless of the cost to anyone else.

that is one of the reasons why i am boycotting the "spirit" of the modern day "christmas" and not spending money with the retailers. instead we are trying to help those that have lost jobs, are losing homes etc. a lot of people in that position.

and for my family and friends, hand made items that have been crafted by either myself or my wife. getting christmas back to what it really means.

d

[dilligaf]

Daniel,
There are times when I want to just smack the idiots upside the head and say 'what were you thinking?'.


I was watching the local news Fri nite. They were showing the local malls and how packed the parking lots were and the rash of robberies that were already occuring. They did a spot light on how handicapped spaces are being used by non-handicapped people. Pisses me off to no end to see this.

Our local sheriff's dept (ya the illustrious Joe Arpiao guys) go out and do volunteer patrols around the malls (on foot and horseback). One of the targets is illegal parking. The fines for parking in a handicapped spot is 250-500$. One would think this would be a deterent but it's not. People generally don't care about anything other than themselves. SAD!

[UpstateNYUPSer]

[quote=dilligaf;438637] ...They did a spot light on how handicapped spaces are being used by non-handicapped people. Pisses me off to no end to see this.

Dilli, we had a driver (since retired) who would "borrow" her Mom's handicap placard whenever she went to the store. I also know a C.O. (prison guard) who borrows his wife's placard whenever he goes to the store. Enforcement is difficult in these situations unless the cop actually sees them going in/out of their vehicles. I agree, it also pisses me off to no end to see this.

[UpstateNYUPSer]

Originally Posted by DS

why the hell is it called black friday?
sounds kinda morbid

Boxing Day sounds pretty rough too.

[dilligaf]

Upstate, I do believe that if I saw someone who was apperently not handicapped, parking in a handicapped spot, I would find security and report it (or local PD) and let them sort it out. A placard is asigned to a person and can be checked. I know because when I had knee surgery I had a temp placard.

[UpstateNYUPSer]

Originally Posted by dilligaf

Upstate, I do believe that if I saw someone who was apperently not handicapped, parking in a handicapped spot, I would find security and report it (or local PD) and let them sort it out. A placard is asigned to a person and can be checked. I know because when I had knee surgery I had a temp placard.

The only problem there is not all handicaps are visible.

[dilligaf]

Originally Posted by UpstateNYUPSer

The only problem there is not all handicaps are visible.

This is true.