Black Friday has been known to be the favorite holiday of corporations and determined savers. It was considered the best time to get that new pair of shoes that you wanted or the perfect holiday gift for your mother. People full from Thanksgiving dinner would stand in lines wrapping around stores starting as soon as 8pm that Thursday night. Stores would be open on Friday from 6am to midnight that following night. If some places felt nice, they’d even open into the night on Thursday before giving themselves a few hours to regroup before the Friday madness. Everything in the store was at least 50% off and if you were lucky, you could even get them marked down with extra sales to be almost free. One full cart of shopping on Black Friday was equivalent to one item on a usual Wednesday. And if for some reason you had to miss the in-person shopping, you always had Cyber Monday deals to count on.
So what happened to Black Friday?
Maybe it’s to try and persuade customers from ultimate consumerism, though I doubt it. It could be that companies are realizing that they’re losing money from selling hundred-dollar items for six dollars, even if it’s for a few hours. It could be true that factories might not have been able to keep up with the demand from the Friday alone. It might be the fact that the effects of COVID-19 on in-person shopping are still lying around. It probably isn’t due to one reason alone, but Black Friday isn’t the iconic shopping day that it once was anymore.
To first start, the sales are ridiculously low compared to what they once were, with many places giving off a measly 20% sales that you could find on their website in about two weeks. A lot of stores are giving out sales with exclusions for their most expensive items, so what’s even the point? Large companies are doing extra sales without full restocks, so the thing you wanted to buy yourself for this winter was gone before you even loaded into the site. You can find the same sale in person as online, so why even bother to drive up to your local mall? You’re still saving money, but it’s not nearly anywhere close to what Black Friday used to be about.
It’s probably less hassle and still safer for everyone involved, but I do have to admit it was an entertaining holiday, and it used to genuinely save people lots of money. Some people relied on those huge sales in order to be able to afford all of their presents, so it’s disappointing to see what the holiday has turned into to say the least.