1) The History of Black Friday

In the beginning, the Americans used the term Black Friday around 1952, as the day after Thanksgiving Day in the United States. This term described the heavy traffic that happened after Thanksgiving Day. Many people would take the day off after Thanksgiving Day. Having this extra day off would make it a long weekend. Black Friday’s heavy traffic caused a lot of disruption in the city. Hence, this was considered “black” Friday.

Afterwards, in the early 2000s, retailers promoted Black Friday as the start of Christmas season shopping. This was also known as the day that retailers supposedly began to be profitable—“in the red to being in the black”.

2) Great for the Economy

At first thought, people believed that this increase of purchasing and spending would be wonderful for the economy. Black Friday often displayed extreme discounts and special promotions. At this moment, you might be noticing that these Black Friday specials are advertised around you now.

Have you ever thought about the items being advertised as benefiting the environment too? Or were they only benefiting the big box businesses out there?

3) Great for the Environment 

First of all, Black Friday could be an excellent shopping day for the environment. You could start by focusing on local shops around your neighbourhood. One of the worst type of pollution on Black Friday was the terrible and heavy traffic that could happen. Hence, if more people walked to their local shops and businesses, there would be less air pollution too.

Secondly, local shops often carried products that require less travelling; therefore, they needed less or even no packing material. Less packaging helped to reduce the amount of plastics in our garbage. Futhermore, these plastics often accompanied many overseas-made products.

Lastly, for those who lived farther off and away from the city, you could shop online. Similarly, you could search for local entrepreneurs who owned personal online stores.