The term ‘Black Friday’ was first used in 1869, however, most of the people were unfamiliar with the term until the 1980s. Before the Black Friday there was a holiday shopping season. Macy’s was one of the biggest stores at that time with 14,000 employees which served 400,000 items to more than 250,000 eager shoppers at a time.
The marketing efforts about the holiday shopping season involved a giant pep rally, which includes harmonious rendition of “Jingle Bells.” Telephone operators prepared to respond to as many as six questions per minute. Plainclothes employee detectives trained to spot shoplifters from among the hordes. And clerks readied themselves to handle fluid pricing on that year’s hottest items from striped pyjamas to “simulated” pearls to Macy’s house-brand Scotch which fluctuated as many as five times per day as reports of competitors” pricing came in.
Here below are some amazing vintage photos that show what Biggest Holiday Shopping season at Macy’s looked like in 1948.
