Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, which traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season. Many stores offer highly promoted sales at discounted prices and often open early, sometimes as early as midnight or even on Thanksgiving. The term "Black Friday" was coined around the 1960s by Philadelphia police officers to describe the chaos that resulted when large numbers of suburban tourists came into the city to begin their holiday shopping. It has become one of the busiest shopping days of the year, with national chain stores offering limited money-saving specials on a wide variety of goods to lure shoppers into stores while offering similar deals online
. The name "Black Friday" is believed to stem from the old bookkeeping practice of recording profits in black ink and losses in red ink, with the day symbolizing the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit for the year, or are "in the black"
