By Mireya Rodriguez |Staff Writer|

Black Friday. Into the black we go.

The ominous Black Friday is almost upon us, but few know how it all started and how it has evolved.

According to the Huffington Post, the term “Black Friday” originated from the Philadelphia Police Department back in the 1960s.

They started to refer to the day after Thanksgiving as “Black Friday” hoping to scare off consumers from participating in the madness.

Black Friday meant traffic jams, and public pandemonium, according to the Huffington Post.

After two centuries, the term slowly evolved into the post-Thanksgiving sales “going into the black” for retailers, with the hopes of producing a profit.

With a negative origin, Black Friday maintains it’s notorious reputation with reported injuries and deaths.

So many accidents and tragedies have occurred on Black Friday, a website was created in 2006 to track these disasters.

There has been seven Black Friday-related deaths and 98 injuries since 2006 according to blackfridaycount.com.

The bottom of the site states, “not affiliated with a certain site, with a strikingly similar layout, touting Cyber Monday death counts. Spoiler: there aren’t any!”

This is one of the many reasons why many people prefer to shop online for these sales.

Student Mary Castro said, “I personally prefer to shop online for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.”

“I hate to wait in those crazy long lines, and definitely prefer shopping from the comfort of my own home in my pajamas whenever I feel like it,” continued Castro.

Several students agreed with Castro’s viewpoint, favoring online shopping, especially because so many students work on Black Friday.

“I feel like Thanksgiving is about getting together with your family and friends, not spending it in line waiting to shop,” said student Briana Mesa.

“Black Friday should not be about heading to the streets to spend their money on dumb sales, it should be about spending time with their family, especially after a Thanksgiving dinner, that is supposed to be all about being thankful,” added Mesa.

REI, a sports gear retailer, is closing all 143 of their stores on Black Friday, according to forbes.com.

REI instead encouraged their customers and will pay their employees to #OptOutside on Black Friday by heading outdoors.

“I love the idea that REI is closing their doors on Black Friday when everyone else seems to be opening early or worse, opening on Thanksgiving,” stated Heather Stinnett, REI customer.

“And while I hadn’t necessarily planned to shop at REI this holiday season, their message to #OptOutside has motivated me to not only get outside on Black Friday, but also to support REI this holiday season as a customer,” added Stinnett.

REI may inspire other retailers and people to do the same, by spending their time with family, instead of standing in lines and traffic jams.

This Black Friday remember, Thanksgiving is about giving thanks, not about skipping dinner or leaving early to shop cheap sales.