In the past, Black Friday seemed like a consumerism rampage that never failed to overwhelm store employees. Workers are burdened by working a shift on that Friday in the third week of November. But now, the spirit of Black Friday has dwindled away to the point where this holiday feels just like any other normal day. So, where did the essence of Black Friday go?
One cause of this can be the decrease in the discounts, as well as discounts lasting longer than just Black Friday. Nowadays, the “Black Friday” sales last for weeks which causes the “insane” discounts to diminish. This creates a lack of urgency for indulging in deals which defeats the whole purpose of creating the holiday.
On top of the more spread out sale schedule, the dwindling of in-store deals is another reason why Black Friday has seemed to lose its magic, many consumers are turning to online shopping.
This twist in the post-Thankgiving holiday has been coined as Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday is now characterized by cheap deals on many online platforms such as Amazon. This has increased in popularity as many people also do not want to wait in the long agonizing lines of stores, but rather have a package arrive on their doorstep.
On top of this, the COVID pandemic decreased the amount of in-store interactions, furthering the shift toward online consumerism.
So even though the intense spirit of Black Friday might have seemed to fade away this has opened many new opportunities like shopping online. This allows many more people to enjoy this holiday spirit without having to push and shove to get a deal on the year’s hottest item.
So maybe Black Friday has not faded away but is evolving into something new, something better that can adapt to our fast-paced society of today. But now the discounts are fading and the deals seem to be nothing but ordinary. As the Black Friday spirit seems to dwindle away many consumers are turning to deals online.