Too many shopping days

The first day was simply known as Black Friday, a day of early morning sales the Friday after Thanksgiving.

The term “Black Friday” allegedly comes from a day noted for workers calling in sick after Thanksgiving to have the four-day weekend. The term took a darker turn in the 1960s when police in Philadelphia used Black Friday and Black Saturday to describe days where police would be called in for traffic and crowd control as shoppers made their way to shopping centers. Of course, now people tend to think of Black Friday in relation to crazed mobs trying to be the first into a store.

Be...