It’s finally that time of year. Halloween has passed and the turkeys are being prepared for our Thanksgiving dinners. Amongst the dinner preparation, people are saving up to splurge on Christmas gifts for those that they love.
When looking back on American society and culture, shopping for Christmas gifts the day after Thanksgiving became labeled as Black Friday. Though, the first ever recorded use of this term had a very different meaning.
The first use of the term Black Friday, was used in relation to a financial crisis in America in 1869. This was due to two greedy Wall Street financiers, who teamed up to get their hands on serious amounts of the nation’s gold, with a mission to double the price and sell, which went through successfully. This deal sent the stock market into free-fall and left all Wall Street participants bankrupt.
The term ends up getting warped into the definition for those who spend astronomical amounts of money the day after Thanksgiving. Then it was changed into a marketing tactic in the 1980’s. Retailers had found the day specifically garnered lots of shoppers, so they decided to make it even more worthwhile. Over the past several decades, Black Friday deals have evolved to last the entire week before or after Thanksgiving, giving shoppers weeks worth of deals at retailers across the nation.
But, this has drastically changed over the years.
With the increase in online shopping and decrease in the amount of in-person retailers, Black Friday has lost the holiday charm it used to hold. Yes, there are still a surplus of deals in-store and online. But the value of Black Friday and in-store Holiday shopping has diminished.
When we look at popular media concerning Black Friday, it gained its notoriety for its chaotic being. Newscasts from the years 2005 to 2015 on Thanksgiving day were flooded with the possible brawls and viciousness that was in-store shopping on Black Friday.
Its appeal was shoppers being able to head out to the malls or storefronts late at night, camp out and be the first to snag the best products with the best deals of the year. The compilations of screaming matches and fist fights over merchandise in stores were endless.
It quickly became a phenomenon, and some parts of the country looked more forward to seeing the comedic value in the chaos of it all, rather than participating. Opening day of the event drew crowds, but days after with continuing deals saw less crowd uproar.
The recent increase in online shopping can be inferred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since individuals were recommended to stay indoors and not do any in-store shopping, the increase of online shopping was inevitable. According to the National Library of Medicine, the shift in the need for online shopping increased 25% from 2019 to 2020. At this time, even company representatives found that online shopping would continue to increase, and it has.
According to Forbes, the e-commerce market is expected to hit $7.9 trillion by 2027. That is two years away, and this number is very believable. Individuals would rather choose to order online, and return to sender than go to their local department store and try on the item they want.
Amazon, the online retailer, is 37.6% of these e-commerce sales as well. Amazon is also now one of the most popular ways of online shopping, its overnight shipping and easy to find items are unbeatable in some aspects.
Social media influence on items has also curbed the amount of those shopping in stores. Applications like TikTok have their own marketplace, similar to Amazon as external retailers can sell their items through TikTok Shop.
There is constantly new merchandise being produced and advertised, and it’s being bought at the drop of a hat. If it gains any sort of popularity amongst people online, it quickly garners attention and buyers. Especially if these items are “dupes”, or duplicates of high-end products for more affordable prices. Dupes within the cosmetics and home decor industry have become more popular.
This type of overconsumption and impulse-buys curbs the need for a surplus in holiday shopping closer to Christmas. Not only does this overconsumption hurt the in-store retail business, sales aren’t as good as they used to be.
Retailers like Macy’s and other big department stores offer Pre-Black Friday sales, which start weeks ahead of the official shopping day and you have individuals spending at the start and spending until the very end. Whether it’s in-store, or online for Cyber-Monday, everyone is scoping out the best deals.
Now, it may seem surprising to say that younger generations miss the entertainment aspects that Black Friday used to come with, as the fights between adults over toys or flatscreen tv’s were memories forever engraved in our brains. But, it’s not lost on us that it definitely has lost the charm it used to hold.
It has now warped into the greed of corporate companies as well as a society who continues to want and want, even when it is simply handed to them on a silver platter.
