Zeros

The Magic of Black Friday: A Shopping Tradition Through the Decades There's something magical about Black Friday that transforms ordinary shopping into an unforgettable experience. As the snow falls this year and families gather around Thanksgiving tables, millions are already planning their shopping strategies for the biggest retail day of the year!  But how did this tradition become such a beloved part of the holiday season? From Main Street to Your Street Black Friday's origins trace back to the 1950s in Philadelphia , where police used the term to describe the chaos of crowds flooding downtown the day after Thanksgiving . What started as a headache for traffic cops evolved into something retailers learned to embrace. By the 1980s, stores across America were opening their doors at dawn, welcoming eager shoppers to grand department stores downtown with elaborate window displays and doorbuster deals. Those classic department stores— with their polis...

The Empty Echo : What Happens When Our Malls Disappear? You're pulling the Halloween decorations down from the closet, and right behind them, there's the box marked,  Christmas . In a few weeks, you'll be shopping for gifts—probably clicking through Amazon at midnight, maybe making a quick Walmart run between errands. It's efficient. It's convenient. But something has been quietly vanishing while we've been adding items to our digital carts. Across America, the malls that once anchored our communities are being demolished. Eastland Mall in Columbus, Ohio—once a bustling center of commerce and community—began its demolition this year. The Outlets at Hillsboro in Texas, Jamestown Mall in Missouri, and dozens of others have met the same fate or are scheduled for the wrecking ball. These aren't just buildings coming down. They're town centers disappearing. The numbers tell a sobering story. Between 2016 and 2024, a net 18,730 ma...