Is Black Friday shopping necessary with everything most limited-time sales transitioning from strictly in-person to becoming available online too?
Black Friday used to be something that was overhyped. People would wake up at the crack of dawn after a long celebration of Thanksgiving to go line up outside stores waiting in the cold to get the best deals for the upcoming holidays. Now that we are moving into a full-on digital age, deals are moving online minimizing the number of people going in and causing chaos.
I’ve only ever gone Black Friday shopping once and can say that it won’t happen again unless a sale is insanely amazing.
The one time I went was a complete bust. My mom, aunt, and I went to our local mall in San Diego the minute the clock struck midnight. We went to JCPenney first because they have everything but at that time, they had nothing. The store was a complete mess with items in the wrong places. It looked like a twister had thrown everything around.
Hearing the stories of my family members going Black Friday shopping made it sound like an animal fight I wanted to witness. I was deeply interested in experiencing for myself the excitement they had about the money they saved but unfortunately, my only experience was the complete opposite, a total bust.
When COVID-19 hit, deals that were primarily in-store started going online, limiting the amount of people in the store. Because the deal was the exact same online this meant that there was more inventory and I didn’t have to go in person getting a massive headache wearing a mask surrounded by everybody’s body heat with everybody reaching for the same stuff. This is also the time when Cyber Monday started to be even better than Black Friday deals, so who really needed to go into the store anyway?
You can log on anytime during Thanksgiving weekend and for some stores maybe even before to get these deals at your favorite retail stores. I saw recently that Target was putting up Black Friday deals when in reality, they are the on-sale prices listed before the holiday “steal.” Some deals are being announced days, maybe even weeks in advance so that way you have time to prepare for the right deals to fit your wallet.
I remember my parents talking about how the deals at Best Buy got leaked online one year and how everyone was going! That excitement has been erased and is replaced by the anxiety of waiting in a queue just to purchase.
I wonder if this cultural holiday we willingly spend money and waste sleeping hours for is actually worth it. Is saving a few dollars worth the anxiety of Christmas chaos? Or can it be spared for a few hours online for the same deal across a few days? I think it is a waste of time and sleep to be up that early when you might not walk out with a good deal or find a deal but see an even better one online. To me, it is just not worth it.