Commercials and emails flood the media in the days leading up to Black Friday, encouraging thousands to seek out deals during their holidays, but it was not always that way.

According to history.com, the first use of the term ‘Black Friday’ originally referred to a crash in the gold market in 1869 that left the entire country nearly bankrupt. Later, in the 1950’s, police officers in Philadelphia referred to the day after Thanksgiving as ‘Black Friday’ to describe an influx of residents and travelers attending an annual Army-Navy football game. Police officers had to work longer shifts to deal with traffic and crowd control issues. Shoplifting also became a major problem as well due to the high volume of people.

During the 1980’s, retailers used the day to turn an additional profit, and today Black Friday has evolved into a five-day event, including ‘Cyber Monday’ in which sales are offered only online.  Hard core shoppers can save on products as soon as they finish their Thanksgiving meal.

This year, attention and appreciation were also directed toward local small businesses here in Platteville.

Tim Ingram, owner of Platteville’s Momentum Bikes, said he never offers a Black Friday deal. “I don’t see a lot of people coming into our store for shopping,” Ingram said. “What I see is a lot of people [who] happen to be walking downtown and wander in to see what we have.”

Momentum Bikes experienced a surprising amount of business on Wednesday and Friday, and said they sold six fat bikes on Saturday.

Netux Solutions, an electronics retail store that has been in business for 11 years, and Change of Seasons, a retail store that has been in business for 29 years, do offer Black Friday sales. Change of Seasons owner Lori Reddy said, “Black Friday went just like predicted, the people who came back to visit flooded our shop for their annual shopping trip.”

Christopher Geyer of Netux Solutions described the competition as “fierce” and said he never knows what to expect.

“We sold out of some of our sales items within an hour of opening, and some items we anticipated selling out of did not,” Geyer said.

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