I believe that some Black Friday deals are for merchandise that’s designed to manufacture and sell for less than the usual stuff. Like an LCD TV with only two HDMI inputs rather than the four HDMI inputs that are standard. (Similarly, a lot of the stuff at brand-name outlet stores is stuff designed for sale in an outlet store. So that Calvin Klein shirt isn’t the same as the ones in Macy’s or Nordstrom.)
Nash Bozard, a Youtuber who does a “weird news” segment on his weekly livestream and usually does a Black Friday edition the week after, commented today that he couldn’t find any stories about Black Friday fights or riots this year.
Maybe the one-two punch of covid and retailers trying to expand Black Friday into an entire goddamn month has finally done it in.
From what I’ve read, Black Friday isn’t the same. Many of the deals were available before Black Friday or even after, or are only available online.
The Xbox that I got as a Black Friday special was a good deal and no different than the regular one (it’s not some special watered-down version or anything). And it was a real Black Friday deal, and had to be picked up in-store (though we were able to purchase it online before picking it up).
But a lot of retailers had “Black Friday” all week, whether it was online or in a physical store, and “Cyber Monday” has become something that’s almost as big of a deal. The day has definitely lost its significance. That’s not a bad thing to me, there have been a lot of horror stories about desperate and/or asshole customers causing massive problems.
But I worked through 3 different Black Fridays at Toys R Us in the mid 90s and I don’t remember anything crazy. No, the crazy shit was the month of December, the whole fucking month, and in particular the week leading up to Christmas. That’s when things were a nightmare. Though working there on Christmas Eve was the best. It was slow except for the desperate people needing last-minute shit, or drunks. (Sometimes both.) A particularly common archetype was the “businessman who has no relationship with his kids and doesn’t know anything about them and was too busy with work to bother getting anything before”, you could pretty much spot them as soon as they stepped through the doors. I personally helped maybe a half dozen such folks over the 3 holidays I worked there.
My mom and sister were like this. Laying out the ads, deciding which stores to wait at, packing the hot cocoa and extra mittens. And they always reported that other people in the line were in a good mood, jokes & snacks were shared and people were enjoying the experience. Not something for me but, for them, the whole thing was one Consumerism Hunt package. My mom is older now and my sister manages a retail store so gets roped into the other side of Black Friday and those days are over but not because they hated it.
At 11am on Black Friday this year a friend texted me for a spontaneous lunch near my house. I drove down to meet him and it was a fun time. At the end of our time I realized that we were in a mall that would ordinarily be a madhouse in years past. It was completely dead.
I did buy a TV on Black Friday. We were in the market for a new one anyway, and it was $50 off the usual price, so why not?
I went into Best Buy at about 9:30 am. There were people there, of course, but it wasn’t terribly crowded. I was able to get the attention of a salesperson within a minute or two of arriving, and was out of there within probably twenty minutes total. It didn’t strike me as all that different than any other shopping day.
Yeah I’ve been seeing Black Friday stuff since Nov 1. Target had a big toy sale earlier this month, so I bought my niece some Lego. And don’t forget there was another [Amazon] Prime Day in October, as well as the one in July.
My boyfriend works at Home Depot. He was there 6-noon on Friday. Said the crowd was the same as any week day. Lot of people on the Costco subreddit saying that last Friday was the least busy they’ve ever seen the store.
I’m sure people are over the “traditional” Black Friday. And so are retailers. I can totally see the fun in having an in-person shopping day on Black Friday, just for kicks. But it’s definitely not necessary anymore.
I shopped for my nieces and got a couple things for me. I feel like I got some deals.
Retailers should just adopt “Black November” and officially make the whole month a month of discounts for people doing Christmas shopping. They’re practically doing it anyway.
I saw a lot of “Black Friday Week” online sales, get 'em while they’re hot! That’s fine IMO, but the ones that sent out countdown emails to midnight Saturday, then “extended” the sale through sunday, THEN had a whole separate Cyber Monday sale piss me off. Can’t miss this deal, low inventory, when it’s gone it’s gone, it’s not coming back! Except tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, which is a totally different sale that has conveniently the same discount, except maybe not if you’re unlucky.