Black Friday

The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally referred to as Black Friday among the retail community. While store clerks and shoppers may associate the term with the crowds and the rushing around from rack-to-rack and store-to-store to find just the right holiday gift, for the retail industry black refers to the accounting term to denote profits. It is typically the day when retailers traditionally get back "in the black" after operating "in the red" for the previous months.
Although Black Friday is typically the busiest shopping day of the year in terms of customer traffic, according to the National Retail Federation, it is not typically the day with the highest sales volume. That is usually either the last Saturday before Christmas or December 23.