Black Friday is but a whisper of what it once was, yet many say that is probably a good thing.
The days of wild-eyed customers fighting each other for the latest toy or high-tech gadget are seemingly over, as online shopping has forever changed Americans’ favored day to shop.
The term “Black Friday” has been used since the 1950s to refer to the holiday retail madness striking department stores the day after Thanksgiving, with the crowds presenting headaches for transit workers and the authorities, the AP reported.
However, the iconic images of shoppers camping outside storefronts, converging in stores, and racing to the shelves in search of the hottest items date from as early as the 1980s. At this time, retailers began increasingly marketing Black Friday as a kind of holiday while consumer demand skyrocketed for electronics and other hot-ticket items, such as the famed Cabbage Patch doll.
“These people would camp out a few hours in advance, then several hours in advance, then a day in advance, and a couple of days in advance. I mean, the line kept on getting pushed and pushed and pushed,” Fox 4 KDFW consumer reporter Steve Noviello recalled.
Yet what really drew customers in, as Jay Zagorsky, a clinical associate professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, explained to AP, were the dollar-amount savings.
He noted that a Black Friday sale on an appliance, such as a TV, which cost thousands of dollars two decades ago, could have saved shoppers hundreds of dollars. That draw isn’t comparable nowadays, given that electronics cost considerably less.
Zagorsky explained, “20% off an $80 TV is $16… I’m not standing in line at midnight for $16.”
Yet Black Friday deals continue to lure customers, with the National Retail Federation (NRF) predicting that approximately 182 million people will take advantage of deals through Cyber Monday.
An NRF survey conducted among consumers found that while 61% of respondents planned to shop during this period because of the sales, 28% explained that it was because they enjoyed the tradition.
Zagorsky echoed this sentiment, telling Fox that in-person shopping during Black Friday has a cultural value that can’t be denied.
“Black Friday is slowly getting less and less important, but it’s not going to disappear ever,” he said.
However, many Black Friday shoppers will be making their purchases online, opting for the convenience of avoiding crowds and having items shipped directly to their homes.
Holly Quartaro, the director of fashion and lifestyle at Galleria Dallas, told WFAA that she has observed this shift to online shopping, especially in the wake of the pandemic, and welcomes it.
“For so many years, it was cutthroat, and get there in the middle of the night, and you really go for it. And now, it’s more about enjoying the season,” recalled Quartaro. “The days of people sleeping outside of doors are over as far as we’re concerned, which is a good thing.”
