As someone who appreciates a little competition, I feel that Black Friday is a nice way to spice up the holiday season.
When I was really young, I was in bed before midnight and only my parents would participate in the late night shopping. As I got older, I wanted to tag along to see all of the cool stuff that was on sale, but my parents wouldn’t let me because they felt it was too dangerous.
Finally, when I was in high school they let me go out on Black Friday with my friends and would give me a budget to get my own Christmas presents. We weren’t the type of people to camp outside of the stores hours ahead of time, but we would take advantage of the opportunity to be out really late.
Black Friday was an exciting night for me, but I don’t think it will ever be the same again.
The ultimate shopping experience called Black Friday has been around since the 70’s. People have been fighting over many different products on the day after Thanksgiving for longer than my parents have been alive.
Personally, I think the unofficial holiday was ruined when stores started opening during the middle of the day on Thanksgiving. The biggest issue about it is that it complicates peoples’ Thanksgiving plans, but it also takes away from the term ‘Black Friday’.
When Cyber Monday came about in 2005, it took away a little bit of the Black Friday crowd. I think it has been overall beneficial to the safety of the shoppers, and has allowed for more groups of people to have access to the deals.
Over the course of the last few years, Black Friday has evolved into being insignificant to the holidays. Retailers are starting their deals at the start of November or continuing them all the way through December. All the awesome deals can be accessed online through the store websites or outlets such as Amazon.
This new way of selling products during the holiday season may be more efficient, but I believe it takes all the fun out of things. I did not realize it at the time, but my last Black Friday experience is in the past.
While it wouldn’t make any sense to revert back to the old days, I do hope that we can go back to having a real Black Friday along with Cyber Monday. The deals will just continue to get worse as the time they are available expands and there will be no cool memories made.
With that being said, 2020’s version of Black Friday should be interesting.
Each state has its own laws about large gatherings, and I expect that there will be a record amount of people doing their shopping all online. Stores will still be opening, but there will be no fighting over the newest smart TV as people will be expected to keep their distance from other shoppers.
It seems that while online shopping improves, the need for making purchases in person will continue to diminish. I am hoping that people will not put the days of Black Friday behind them and will keep the tradition alive in 2021.