Crowds, chaos, pushing, grabbing, and deals, deals, deals. These are just a few words that come to mind when thinking about Black Friday and now, in the modern 2-day shipping era, Cyber Monday as well. The days that follow the Thanksgiving holiday ironically defile a time when we are supposed to be grateful for the blessings we have with ideas of buying more and more. But when did this tradition begin?
Originally the term “Black Friday” indicated a bad day for the economy and was first used to refer to the crash of 1869. Over a century later, in the 1980s, the words took on a new, positive meaning associated with businesses starting to acquire holidays profits as people started their early shopping for Christmas. Now the foursome of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Sunday, and Cyber Monday remain some of the biggest shopping days of the entire year.
Is it worth it to participate? I think yes. For someone living on a college budget, sales are opportunities to purchase necessities in addition to some more exciting items that have finally dropped in price. Personally, being able to shop from the comfort of my warm apartment without having to brace myself against the hordes of people in parking lots and malls remains a huge plus. I finally checked out my digital shopping carts from stores like H&M, Sephora, ASOS, and J. Crew and felt very satisfied with my purchasing decisions. And now I can wait for the boxes to pile up against my front door like presents under a tree!