Calvin Masten
The Ramspondents
Are people too full from Thanksgiving, or has Black Friday just lost its charm?
At its peak, the holiday dedicated to outrageous discounts brought hordes of people into retail stores to practically fight over a good deal. Now, those stores see a fraction of those same crowds. But what happened over the years to prompt this change?
One of the larger and more identifiable reasons is how deals in stores today have a much longer duration period, which diminishes the point of Black Friday.
With the holiday always falling on the day after Thanksgiving, many people take that Friday to prepare for all the Christmas shopping. In fact, that’s how Black Friday gained its name and popularity. In the 1960s, police in Philadelphia used the term “Black Friday” to describe how chaotic holiday shopping got the day after Thanksgiving. Big retail stores would later tie the name to being “in the black” to tell shoppers how much money they’ll save.
However, lately, those huge deals have shifted from day-of savings to week-of savings, and sometimes even longer. Audrey Ralphs, the Service & Engagement Executive Team Leader at a Target in Aurora, said she believes the reason for this and the many other changes that have happened to the holiday is a result of a higher emphasis on shopper convenience.
“Companies seem to be investing more in the user-friendly nature of their online platforms as well, displaying all deals in one place rather than having patrons wander a crowded store that may or may not have the product they are looking for in stock,” Ralphs said.
That interest in online shopping that Ralphs mentioned is another large reason why Black Friday looks so different nowadays. Online shopping has been a popular method of buying goods since the mid-1990s, but it didn’t become the cultural norm it is today until the 2010s, especially regarding Black Friday shopping.
The holiday, while bountiful in deals, also came with a large sense of urgency and competition, and shoppers became accustomed to that. But now with many people choosing to shop virtually, that sense of urgency and competition is lost.
Ralphs said that online shopping gives customers a reliable place for shoppers to browse deals casually, instead of “camping outside of a store to fight other guests for the same deal.” This switch would only become more prominent with the introduction of “Cyber Monday,” Black Friday’s online-heavy sibling that gained popularity in the mid-2000s.
The COVID-19 pandemic also played a large role in shoppers switching to online for Black Friday. If shoppers wanted to get in on the deals in 2020 and 2021, they had to take to stores’ websites, which likely introduced many people to its convenience.
“In Target’s case, I have seen online pick-up, drive-up, and shipped orders consistently perform over forecast and in-store sales failing to meet forecast,” Ralphs said.
It would seem that the shift away from what most people think of when they imagine Black Friday can be credited to retailers wanting to create a less stressful environment for the holiday. Those efforts come in the form of longer deal periods and the accessibility that comes with online shopping.
This then begs a different question, that being whether or not the deals that come with the holiday itself have changed as well.
The main point of Black Friday is the eye-catching deals meant to incentivize shoppers to start their holiday purchases without breaking the bank. However, a large consensus over the past years has been that the deals don’t live up to what retailers used to offer customers.
While this can’t be said for every store, Ralphs said that in years past, Target decides what deals to put out for Black Friday based on sales factors, business priorities, and other factors. Categories like toys, technology, and kitchen/household appliances typically get prioritized, as they are often some of the more expensive or sought-after gifts shoppers splurge on.
“This splurging coincides with the energy of the holiday season, allowing consumers to give high-end gifts purchased at the best deals,” Ralphs said.
Calvin Masten is a third-year Journalism and Media Communication major and Sociology minor at Colorado State University. His fondness for interpersonal stories and human connections drives his enjoyment of writing, editing, and filming.