The stresses of holiday shopping that looms over the festivities of the season are strangely reminiscent of the madness of Black Friday that happened a little while back. Perhaps this is as good a time as any to reflect on Black Friday and steel ourselves for the crazy consumerist revelries that are sure to occur around this time of year.
While a lot of us Canadians are always quick to make the distinction that we’re not Americans (sorry, but being Canadian is just different from being American…sorry), Black Friday might be one of the few occasions where we’re happy to be so close to the States. Black Friday deals for them means Black Friday deals for us!
However, while we only focus on what we’re going to splurge on that day, for the U.S., Black Friday isn’t just some day where you focus on the seriously good deals on laptops and T.V.’s. Black Friday is what comes after Thanksgiving, a holiday to give thanks, and it seems that more and more, Thanksgiving is becoming an afterthought to Black Friday.
With more stores now choosing to open on the night of Thanksgiving, more people are opting to go sit in their cars to make the jaunt to the mall, pile into crowded stores to score a bargain on something they would love to have but may not necessarily need, and bask in the thrill of having that new trinket they’ve had their eye on for a while. There are a number of people transitioning into this contemporary way of celebrating Thanksgiving instead of keeping things traditional with sitting down at the dinner table, piling their plates high with all the fixings of a coma-inducing Thanksgiving feast, and enjoying the good company and conversation of friends and family. Thanksgiving should be a time for counting blessings instead of counting how much money you saved on that new laptop you got.
Retailers such as Walmart, Target, and Best Buy were really being keeners on the phrase “the early bird catches the worm” and chose to start offering their sales Thursday evening. They were successful in heightening the frenzy and potentially stealing business from competitors, but along the way, they also stole people’s time away from their families.
In order for stores to be open, there were workers who had to take shifts on the eve of Thanksgiving. Some businesses wanted to keep with the spirit of this holiday and give their employees this time off to spend with their families at home. In fact, three states – Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island – even instituted a ban that prohibits stores from being open on Thanksgiving. A few of the big name stores that decided to keep their closed signs firmly on their doors on this holiday included Costco, Marshalls, and Barnes and Noble.
So the big question is, was it truly more profitable for stores that opened on Thursday instead early on Friday to receive the Black Friday crowds? It’s entirely debatable. For retailers who chose to open on the Thursday, they got a bit of a head start in snagging the business of eager, bargain-hungry crowds, but at the same time, they also ran the risk of getting a bad rep with people who believe Thanksgiving should be centred around family and not shopping. Some retailers said they opened earlier just to meet the expectations of consumers. Others stayed closed as a tribute to their belief that this holiday is about counting blessings and family, not consumerism and the ensuing insanity.
Luckily, in Canada, while we do get to share in the benefits of having stores offer Black Friday deals, and some even following in the footsteps of our American neighbours and turning their Black Fridays into Black Thursdays, we don’t have to deal with the headache of choosing to fight for that last sale item on the shelf or to fight for that last piece of pumpkin pie on the table.
However, now the headache that most of us have, regardless of whether we’re in Canada or the States, is what to get everyone on our holiday shopping lists.
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