The Evolution of Black Friday
The day after every Thanksgiving, I remember watching America’s favorite sport on TV: bargain hunting. As the doors opened, all bets were off. Throngs of people rushed into malls and big-box stores to score deals on everything from perfumes to lawnmowers.
However, after Covid, I have sensed a change in the holiday. There are no Thanksgiving-table discussions of Walmart’s latest limited time deals, nor news coverage of people camping outside of stores, or even the crowded malls of just a few years back have disappeared. In addition, Black Friday seems to have competition: Cyber Monday has quickly risen to steal the spotlight, and Travel Tuesday has emerged as another option. Also, the deals that do exist just do not seem to be as good as they once were. For these reasons, Black Friday seems to be a shell of its former self.
Courtesy of Vogue
Examining the first observation that there is less talk of doorbusters, in fact, less sales are time sensitive. There has been a trend of sales shifting away from the time and quantity limited “doorbuster” model to instead span the weekend, or even the whole holiday season. My observation is supported by Professor Barbara Kahn’s statement to NBC: “Black Friday used to be a trigger for people to go to the store…But as it’s morphed into a general promotional season, Black Friday itself lost its magic: its sense of urgency.”
While there are also theories that Black Friday has completely moved online, Black Friday is still immensely popular for in-person shopping. The National Retail Federation came up with the following chart detailing how many shoppers were online compared to in-store for the most recent Thanksgiving weekend.
Courtesy of The National Retail Federation
This graph shows that while technically, there were more online shoppers, there was still the greatest mass of in-person shopping done on Black Friday itself.
Also, some stores had greater draws to come to visit in-person than others. Per PBS, retailers that offered at least 40% off commanded shoppers’ attention. In addition, stores are still drawing foot traffic for the remaining in-person-only deals, and for the 20% of young adults who want to shop in person with their friends and family over the weekend.
Finally, while it seems that people are still interested in Black Friday, the core question still remains: are these deals actually worth it? The answer is not always. 41% of products offer no greater savings on Black Friday compared to prices in the days and weeks before. However, certain categories like jewelry, apparel, and accessories have the best savings on average, while consumer electronics are not as good of a deal.
Overall, it seems like Black Friday, while not as riveting as it has been in past years, still draws a significant amount of in-person shoppers, especially for the stores offering greater product discounts.
Featured image courtesy of Vogue