Another year, another Black Friday survived. Many retailers this year decided to open their doors on Thanksgiving night, which was an interesting change of pace for consumers and employees.
My sister and I decided to go to Target, which opened on Thanksgiving at 9 P.M. I was hesitant to wait outside, so we hopped on the line about five minutes before the store opened. The line was wrapped around one side of the building and lining the back wall by then, so I thought for sure we’d be waiting a while to get in. Once it hit 9, the line moved fairly quickly though. We were given a map of the store’s layout as we got closer to the door. It had a helpful guide of where the in-demand items were, like TVs, DVDs and vacuums. Then finally we were walking through the big red doors to find…
Peace. Everyone calmly walked in and started glancing at the different items on display near the door. Nobody ran. Nobody yelled. Nobody caused trouble. Instead, people were rather tranquil when contemplated whether or not they really needed that 50” TV. Customers navigated through relatively empty aisles to get what they wanted. Even the toy section, which was full of parents reading off Holiday lists and trying to fulfill their childrens’ every desire, was calm.
There were some hints of chaos though. It is Black Friday, after all. The first happened when the aisles surrounding the DVD displays became crowded with people perusing the titles, which caused some people to get very frustrated and push through the crowd while yelling. One woman looked embarrassed as her husband asserted himself through the gathering of people and shopping carts, but he successfully made it through to the other side without any fights breaking out. The second was when people discovered that Target had blocked off a lot of the store in order to form a single orderly line to the registers. The Target employee who had the unfortunate job of being the gatekeeper dealt with a lot of nagging customers who said that the line was, “Ridiculous,” or insisted that they “needed” a toothbrush located in the bin closer to the register.
Overall, we were in and out within an hour. I bought a few DVDs and a set of pots and pans for my off-campus house – they were half off, how could I resist?. On my drive home, I couldn’t help but really think about why things were so calm this year. I came up with a few theories.
- Perhaps opening at 9 P.M. on Thursday helped to alleviate the problem on Friday. People weren’t in a sleepless haze as they tore through the store. Nobody was up past their bedtime. It was still Thanksgiving – a day of thanks and not of threatening to beat somebody up for a blender. Maybe everyone’s mindsets were just different. I certainly missed the entertaining aspect of Black Friday, but I’ll admit it was nice to place of the importance of being a decent human being over a great sale.
- Stores are learning from every year’s experience and looking to make things better for the next year. Target had a slew of employees stationed around the store, offering help and ensuring a relaxing shopping experience. They kept order in the store, which is incredibly important at a time like that.
- More people may be taking advantage of Cyber Monday deals online. It is tempting to sit in pajamas with a cup of coffee and do hassle-free shopping online…
4. The world is, in fact, ending on Dec. 21. How else can we really explain a serene Black Friday?