Like many others on the day after Thanksgiving each year, I find myself eagerly opening my laptop and typing in websites of my favorite stores, hoping to find great bargains and deals on cute clothes. Disappointingly, this year I ended up purchasing nothing, as I found most of my favorite stores offering sales under 50 percent discounts. Each year, it seems as though sales are decreasing, making shoppers like myself wonder if it is worth facing the deranged crowds of other customers of your favorite stores.
What used to be 80 percent off store-wide soon transitioned into 20 percent off on select items and buy-one-get-one-free sales. The number of shoppers eagerly waiting outside stores at 5 a.m., waiting for doors to open slowly has plummeted, just as the sale percentages did, eventually causing shoppers to gradually withdraw purchasing from their favorite stores. Not to mention, certain brands will jack their prices a day or two prior to Black Friday, to give shoppers the illusion that the items are on sale when actually you are paying the same amount that you would on any other day.
Ever since the 1950s, when the term “Black Friday” originated, it has signified the beginning of the holiday season, with the great majority of shoppers purchasing gifts for the holidays. The term quickly caught on in the city of Philadelphia, where it started, and soon reached the rest of the nation as well, making Black Friday a day known by all. Unfortunately, ever since then, year after year, as stores start to implement “free shipping” as opposed to actual discounts, it has made the day feel much less exciting.
Although, it’s not to say that Black Friday has completely lost its spark, and while a chronic shopper like myself turned away from Black Friday sales this year, many others did not. And while discounts are slowly depleting year after year, Black Friday still remains the most popular day for shopping year after year, with Cyber Monday in second. On Black Friday, there was $10.8 billion total in revenue, which was a one billion dollar increase from last year (NewsNation).
While this is undeniably the result of a large number of customers, whether because they are shopaholics like me or buying holiday gifts, it is also the result of companies starting their sales earlier, making the markdowns of products stick around longer. Establishments beginning their sales many days prior to the actual day of Black Friday can certainly be of advantage to the employees of retail stores, as they can avoid a larger crowd of rowdy shoppers, but it can be of disadvantage to consumers. Large brands that use this technique cause shoppers to feel that the actual day of Black Friday is beginning to seem like much less of an event.
Whether it is a decrease in price reductions or an increase in prices just before Black Friday to give shoppers the illusion that they are getting a great deal when that is not the case, it is undeniable that retail stores are getting more and more greedy as time goes on. While I still do love to shop, this year, I couldn’t help but recognize the downturn of the cutback of retail stores’ prices on their clearance rack.