When Black Friday is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is a crowd of people pressed up against the doors of an unopened Best Buy at 6 AM, waiting for the poor staff member to unlock the doors and unleash a fury of anxious customers trying to snag a deal on a new TV, toaster, or holiday gifts for their loved ones. However, in reality, Black Friday has become just another Friday. What happened?
The Black Friday falloff is a series of cascading problems with the way businesses have structured around the day. Traditionally, you would expect to see extremely hefty discounts on products, ranging from 30% to upwards of 80–90%. Businesses would originally promote their Black Friday sales and be extremely enthusiastic about the event. Walmart, for example, now opens at 6 AM, which is their normal opening time. Originally, companies would open up at the crack of dawn, as early as 4 AM, to let in the initial wave of Black Friday shoppers. It’s as if the businesses themselves are no longer interested in Black Friday and are hoping to deter extra customers.
The surge of online shopping has also been detrimental to the in-person shopping experience. While Cyber Monday exists, many retailers are treating Black Friday just like Cyber Monday. Because of this, shoppers simply order their typical Amazon purchases or other products online, which significantly contributes to the statistic that Black Friday/Cyber Monday spending is still at an all-time high.
Looks are definitely deceiving. Spending in stores is up 0.7%; however, this metric does not account for inflation. When accounting for inflation, people are actually paying even less in stores. However, online shopping has seemingly taken off, with 14.6% sales increases on e-commerce sites. The question is why—and the answer is quite simple: why shop in person when we can impulsively buy online?
Due to the increase in technology, Black Friday will most likely never resurge like it used to. Late-stage capitalism, mixed with prioritizing convenience, has ensured that Black Friday will never realistically be the same. Gone are the days of 90% off—Black Friday is now just 10% discounts on an item that was already marked up by 20%.
