Before online shopping gained popularity, people would start their holiday purchasing push on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. On this day, major retail stores like Best Buy, Target and Walmart would open earlier than usual with more discounts than any other time of year. There were people who slept outside the store in tents to be the first in line for holiday sales on the most popular trends.
When the Covid pandemic hit, the numbers of people shopping during Black Friday went down significantly, and with the ease of online consumerism, in-person holiday shopping might come to an end in the near future.
Since the 1980s, Black Friday has been a huge holiday for customers in America. Big box and retail stores made it a holiday unto itself, with deals that claimed to be too good to miss. These deals sometimes spurred customers to buy things they did not need.
“I remember getting all the flyers from Best Buy and others, the prices were incredible,” Montclair resident Brent Ashton, an active in-person Black Friday shopper from 2002 to 2013, said
However, the insane bargains on Black Friday caused some customers to fight over the items. At the same time, these deals would draw huge crowds to the stores, sometimes ending in squabbles and fistfights.
Ashton said stores like Best Buy were “shoulder to shoulder” crowded with customers. People would rush to shelves for a discounted TV, not stopping no matter what or who was in the way. There are countless online videos of people in Walmart fighting over low-priced electronics from the 2010s.
During the pandemic, fewer people went to the stores in person, so merchants put out online Black Friday sales. Online shopping was easy, and customers could do it from their phone or computers with just a few clicks. This started the spark of an online Black Friday, with stores offering deals weeks earlier than the traditional shopping day.
“When something pops up in my email on sale from a brand that I like, it’s a reminder to buy something I wanted to get,” Rebecca Stern, an online Black Friday shopper said. “Black Friday keeps starting earlier and earlier every year.”
Black Friday is still a beloved in-person tradition for many Americans. However, as the ease of comparative online shopping grows, it is slowly dying out.
“There was no need to wait in line anymore,” Ashton said. “I felt like I could get the things I wanted for a good price and not have to leave my house.” According to CNBC, Black Friday shoppers spent a record-breaking $9.8 billion online in 2023.
In addition to its economic advantage, some think the switch to an online Black Friday is beneficial for families, who can spend more of the Thanksgiving weekend together.
“Everybody should get some time off,” Stern said, referencing workers who have to clock in early on Black Friday. “Some stores started going open at midnight on Black Friday and [employees] had to come in to prep on Thanksgiving. Do we really need people working on Thanksgiving?”
