By Vanessa Shipley
Edited by Anoosha Barua
Black Friday is the commencement of holiday cheer. It’s a day of anticipation- the day when it’s socially acceptable to listen to Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas on full volume and start decking your halls with ~boughs of holly~. Though the Friday after Turkey Day seems like a cheery occasion, the word ‘Black’ that precedes it refers to the darker history of this day --traffic accidents and crimes. It was named by the Philadelphia Police department in 1950, who had to coral angry Christmas Shoppers hunting for half-price department store goods.
Recently, Black Friday violence has become so heated that twitter created the hashtag #WalmartFights. And fight they do, in 2011 an angry Walmart Shopper sprayed pepper-spray into a crowd, in hopes that it would win her a competitive advantage in her hunt for a Wii on sale 60% off.
So, why do we waste our Turkey Day waiting in lines in the barren parking lots of strip malls? We don’t need to.
Thanks to Cyber Monday and more advanced online shopping platforms, we can now battle for our discounted deals from the warm safety of our home. Last year, over 58 million joined this trend and discounted their goods more than ever before. Companies such as Amazon have started offering deals that smaller retailers just can’t match. So rest assured that this holiday season will be pepper-spray free, stay safe and comfortable and avoid the Dark side of Black Friday.
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