Black Friday in the Era of Online Shopping
On Cyber Monday, I spent one-hundred dollars on a knit shirt, (of course, I justified this with the excuse that it was "fifteen percent off" and "would have been more expensive otherwise") but promptly returned it, realizing I made a terrible decision. The reason I bring this instance up is to point out that I did not make this ever-so-extravagant purchase on the most famous shopping event of the year: Black Friday. The Friday after Thanksgiving has marked the start of Christmas shopping for decades, but only recently has a similar event—occurring only three days later—joined the picture, a product of the digital age.
The term "Cyber Monday" was coined by the National Retail Federation in 2005, used to describe the flurry of online sales the Monday after Thanksgiving. This event appears to be an online shopper's dream, where anyone, anywhere, can get great deals without pushing through crowds or waiting in early morning lines. However, despite Cyber Monday raking in $1.8 billion more than Black Friday in 2021, it has yet to outshine the latter in terms of browsing. In 2020, 88 million people were browsing stores virtually on Black Friday compared to 77 million on Cyber Monday. In fact, stores are starting to combine the two holidays and host site-wide sales for the whole weekend.
This is not to say that in-person Black Friday sales haven't fallen. The Washington Post noted that less and less people have showed up at malls on the shopping holiday since the popularization of online shopping.
"The deals, you can get them online…10 days ahead. So, [Black Friday is] no longer that meaningful,” shopper Sunil Singh said. Self-proclaimed internet families turn to online shopping for the convenience of it, and the originality of Black Friday diminishes. Plus, with prices increasing 7.7 percent this past year, the people who do decide show up in malls make fewer and fewer purchases.
However, I would argue that Black Friday will never be fully overtaken by online shopping. Similar to why we hear Christmas music from the 1900s on the radio more than carols from the 2000s, Black Friday is too much of a tradition for families to give up. Clicking the "add to cart" button a few times is nowhere near as exciting as running from store to store and stopping by the food court to buy a pretzel. "Shopping in person is a social outing and people still like to try clothes on," said mall manager Ryan Hidalgo–and I agree. In my mind, Cyber Monday is your know-it-all cousin, but Black Friday is your cool aunt: timeless and knowing of her worth.
by KATIE LIN