Black Friday Shopping
By: Luke Ardizzone
Black Friday, known as the biggest shopping day of the year, has been a tradition in the U.S. for many years, and has become a yearly staple for many shoppers. While the holiday was able to continue this year, there definitely seemed to be something different about this year’s shopping day.
Black Friday started as a chaotic way to deal with a mob of fans, and quickly turned to a crowded group of people looking to get the best deals, and while this “holiday” has become a yearly staple, the holiday has went through some changes because of Covid-19.
A Chaotic Beginning
Black Friday is what the day after thanksgiving is called, where most stores all across America have large discounts on various items, and allowed shoppers to shop and receive huge savings, one day of the year.
The History of this day goes back to the 1950s, where police described the day after thanksgiving as black Friday as crowds of people would flood the streets in advance to the Army-Navy football game (History). Many of these people would storm the stores and shoplift, and the stores and police would have a difficult time stopping and controlling them.
Since the stores in Philadelphia were tired of being robbed, they decided to change their post-thanksgiving day policy, and change the term “black Friday” from a negative connotation to a positive connotation. The stores began offering big discounts on items in there store as to encourage the herd of people to shop the big deals instead of shoplifting, and it worked, and news about this day slowly spread across the country. Soon businesses all jumped in on this new “shopping holiday”, and the American people began to flood the stores every Friday after thanksgiving.
A Yearly Staple
As the years go on, many Americans all across the country still engage in Black Friday. Stores every year offer huge discounts on many items, and a lot of times customers will get up very early, or even wait overnight in order to get a head start on the deals. In some cases, shoppers have even gotten violent and have gotten in fights with other shoppers trying to buy a discounted product.
Whether it’s camping out the night before, or getting up at the crack of dawn, many people often have their own traditions. When talking to a shopper about their black Friday shopping they said, she said, “I’m not your typical black Friday shopper, but I am an avid black Friday shopper”. This shopper in particular said that she gets up around 8:00 am, but tries to get out of the stores by noon. When asked if she regularly shops on Black Friday she also said that, "I typically go, if I have some specific I'm looking for and if the price is right".
While many shoppers flood the stores to check out the deals, some prepare in advance or at least scout out the deals. Another shopper went through their Black Friday process and had this to say, "I typically look on the internet to see what deals the stores are having, and I go to the stores to check out the ones I viewed online".
Most stores have extended Black Friday deals by starting earlier and continuing past actual black, but this still doesn't stop shoppers from getting up early. some of the notable times that people lined up for Black Friday deals was 1:30 am in Anderson, South Carolina.
One other, and more recent trend that has also become a yearly staple for Black Friday is Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday is essentially like Black Friday, but with all of the discounts being online, and on the Monday following Thanksgiving. While this has been a more recent trend, its popularity is very high, and many storm websites like Amazon to get the amazing online deals.
Although the Covid-19 Lockdown may be over in America, and people are now leaving their houses, Black Friday and shopping in general does not look the same as it typically does. In the past years, while the online shopping presence was increasing, it was very popular to go and shop the big deals in person. However, when Covid-19 spread throughout 2020, online shopping became not only a thing of Black Friday, but a way to shop for everyday items. When Black Friday came around, it was only natural for people to still be cautious and continue online.
While many shoppers decided to avoid the crowd of people and stick to shopping online. In 2021, as restrictions are slowly being lifted and people have become more comfortable leaving their homes to go out in stores.
However, even though the lockdown is over, many people are still hesitant and cautious to flood the stores and be exposed to large crowds of shoppers. However, in person shopping has gone up drastically. While not as many as 2019, 2021 has seen a resurgence in online shopping throughout the year and especially on Black Friday weekend.
Sources by: NYT, NRF, blackfriday.com
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