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'Black Friday Is Dying' (fastcompany.com)
A reader shares a report: For years, Black Friday signaled the beginning of Christmas shopping. The day after Thanksgiving was a frantic day of driving to the store at the crack of dawn to fight off other shoppers for great deals. For people who truly hated the ritual, I have some good news for you: Black Friday is going away. That's according to data from GPShopper, which tracks consumer behavior. It turns out, customers are really not into Black Friday. A full 81% of us feel stress surrounding the notion of Black Friday, and 45% of us believe it is the most stressful time of the year. And with online shopping, consumers are increasingly realizing they don't need to do all their shopping on one day. The majority would prefer to shop in the second week of December. Weirdly, a full 12% of consumers would prefer to shop after Christmas, to capitalize on the post-holiday sales, even though their recipients would get their presents a little late.
on January 6. Problem solved.
And I hate that song.
First yo!
SSIA.
Black Friday was never a majority event. It was always a dedicated minority who were either looking for great deals or just had nothing better to do that day. I think most people always hated it. Online shopping just gave them another way to shop, instead of just avoiding the mall that day.
What will black friday be without getting punched in the face by a fat hood rat wrestling over a TV paid for with food stamps?
But the Ghettofites will still rush to walmart to buy their 'aer' jordan's while killing each other in the process. Nothing is more important than buying a pair of kicks assembled by child slavery in asia....
>Weirdly, a full 12% of consumers would prefer to shop after Christmas, to capitalize on the post-holiday sales, even though their recipients would get their presents a little late.
That's not weird. The whole thing is stupidly inefficient - the stores have to stock up and get temporary workers for a month or so, customers have to cram into those stores during that month, and a premium is put on everything to cover the extra expenses plus the whole 'this could be it until next December' mentality.
On the other hand, I'm pretty much done with the whole 'consume consume consume' thing. Neither I nor any of my family or friends NEED anything, and we have everything we could reasonably want. None of us are starving. None of us lack a book to read or a game to play.
A gift is something I have to find space for in my house. A gift is something I'm going to think about how wasteful it was to have produced, shipped, and eventually recycled (or thrown in the dump).
At best (or worst?) I just want to get a little token trinket for someone, and fighting traffic and a crowded mall just to pay a premium for one doesn't appeal. And all the stores around here do 'Boxing Week' sales, with big bargain-hunting crowds pretty much fading in the first day. Damn right I'm going shopping after Christmas, at least for those I won't see until January anyway.
"Weirdly, a full 12% of consumers would prefer to shop after Christmas,"
Newsflash: most people are not Christians. With all this Millennial talk about inclusiveness they seem to forget this.
For high ticket items and electronics, Black Friday is a gimmick and has been for over a decade. ... do continue to have great sales through the holidays.
Ex: If you want a great deal on a good TV, the best deals are this week.
If you want the absolute cheapest 50" TV ever made by some no-name Chinese vendor, then shop on Black Friday and wait in line to be told that they have already sold out.
There are still sales after Black Friday, but never as good as those in the 2 weeks leading up to it.
Note: This mostly applies to items that sell well all year round. Seasonal clothing, gift only items (things no one would ever buy for themselves), latest toy fad (that everyone will realize is crap by December 26),
I would say this is something the retailers brought on themselves:
1: By treating workers like garbage, people working for the store can't really buy their stuff.
2: By buying the cheapest stuff from China to stock the shelves. With money over there, the Chinese had a booming Single's Day... but that money stays there, and doesn't come back. Had the retailers bought in the US, the money would have cycled back to them.
3: By not bothering to adjust to the times. Partner with Amazon, offer a good web store, and perhaps even some delivery system. There isn't the time or parking spaces to fight against the soccer moms at the malls.
Retailers in general (with places like Costco an exception) started the race to the bottom. Now that people can't afford their stuff, they are starting to understand the adage, "you make your bed, you lie in it". Let them blame millennials for it. Remember... those are the people paying millennials and controlling how much/how little they can afford.
As for what takes their place... something will.
Here I was looking forward to buying junk that won't last under the guise of a "great deal."
It's clear to me that the very wrong time to shop is the time that they *think* you are shopping. The real key to get good deals is to follow your own pattern and not the pattern set up by corporations.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Black Friday shopping, going to the store to wait in line to stampede some store for sale items, isn't really going away. It's just changing form. Retailers have realized that online sales are the most cost effective way to go, so things are morphing to online "deals" and away from brick an mortar, break the doors down at 1AM.
BUT, at this point, I'm guessing the numbers being seen as evidence for this article's conclusions isn't fully understood for what it really means. Christmas spending has been largely depressed for the last 8 or so years, mostly for economic reasons. The author seems to be making their case based on this and the retailers sour grapes attitude towards holiday sales. However, this year, the polling shows a marked increase in what people are expecting to spend, so I'm expecting most retailers to exceed expiations, both online and in stores. I'd also not be surprised in a massive resurgence of shoppers on Black Friday.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
When you use the term "dedicated minority", are you referring to African Americans and Hispanic Americans?
It's reasonable for marginalized groups like those who are subjected to poverty to be seeking out good deals on goods that they otherwise couldn't afford the rest of the year. Poverty is no joke. It means that you can't just go out and buy clothing and other essential items whenever you want. It means that you need to budget, save your money, and buy when the price is right, even if that means waiting a long time.
It's also rather disrespectful for you to say that they "have nothing better to do that day". They most likely would rather be working one or more of their multiple jobs, trying desperately to make ends meet.
Please try to show some respect for those who aren't as financially well off as you might be.
Now with most stores opening at noon or 4pm on thanksgiving day for lack luster deals, why should people go out and do their shopping in one day. I'm sorry I'm not going to ruin my thanksgiving, to save $5.. Years back when black friday was actually held on fridays, the deals warranted waking up at midnight to go. Saving $300-$400 on a name brand good tv, sure I'll go and deal with the people.. $50 savings on a "black friday only" tv screw it I'll wait a few weeks for the next deal that will be better.
Why would we stand in line to spend money in person when we can spend less online for the same stuff three days later?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
They just changed it so it's the whole month of November.
I've been able to get a PS4 or XBone for $199 for some time now if I just watch something like Kotaku's adverts for deals. Most of the TV deals are average too. There's a few odds/ends (Home Depot has some holiday decorations on sale for cheap) but that's not going to get anyone out of bed at 4am.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
There's an event coming up, time to troll the readers with negative FUD about it.
I am sure this count would be much higher if you included car related deaths. . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
there is no way in hell would i stand in line for hours in front of a store, and then navigate my way through a crowd of people to get a product only to save a little bit on it, that is the definition of both insanity & stupidity, it sounds like a good way to become a victim of violence of catching a contagious disease or virus, no thank you, dont want it
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Good job summing that up. And I agree, he only has a half-cock.
And nothing of value was lost.
and all of those mob scene stories on the news, how will the rest of the world know that the Thanksmas season, (or is it Christgiving? I can never remember), has started in the US?
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
My father and I went to the Walmart in Mountain View in 2005. When we got there at 6:30AM, 16 police cars surrounded the store and that many officers were inside the store. Otherwise, the store looked perfectly normal. We later found out on the news that 200 to 300 Googlers — who else lives in Mountain View? — tried to get one of two bargain-priced HDTVs and started a full-fledge riot at 5:30AM. We always laughed at people who buy big ass HDTVs to put into their small ass cars and count the abandoned HDTV boxes in the parking lot.
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It's sensible.
Who in their right mind would WANT to go buy stuff at the same time everyone else does? Whether that's Black Friday or Christmas in general. If anything, online shopping will do, but I will certainly NOT spend my time in a warehouse around this time of the year.
First, the obvious: It's a surefire way to get sick. And I'm not even talking about the thousands of people who can't be assed to cover their snouts when sneezing or coughing. It's the insane temperature differences that kill me. Outside it's freezing. So you dress appropriately. But shops feel that compelling urge to turn their sales floor into a Finnish sauna. So you're sweating like a pig. Only to go back outside to be frozen solid. Abso-fucking-lutely great for your health.
Then a billion people pushing carts and throwing stuff about. with at least as many tripping hazards in tow called children. But dare to punt one of those little pests out of the way. Loud, obnoxious and, not least for the aforementioned sweating, smelling like a rotten egg sandwich.
And finally, when you think you ALMOST made it to the end, the inevitable line before the cashiers. A million people lined up in front of ONE SINGLE DAMN checkout booth. Staffed with the trainee, of course, so you have plenty of time to decide you absolutely need one of the impulse buy items, accompanied by the sweet sound of whistle buys that throw tantrums because their parents refuse to buy said impulse items.
You really want to know why we are fed up with this? Are you seriously asking?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
For comparison, how would it look to you if some other country were to have had some big consumerism event going on that they had happened to always refer to as 9-11 (possibly only as a reference to store hours... open from 9am until 11pm, for instance), and they wanted to bring it into the USA? It's unlikely it would be seen to be in very good taste, even though absolutely no offense may have ever be intended.
I'm not suggesting that the Americans should change the name of the event.... but I do quite firmly believe that it should not be happening here.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
The only reason I go out on Black Friday is to watch the shopping riots as entertainment and count the abandoned HDTV boxes in the parking lot.
... and it became unfit to survive.
Humour aside, while attending the earlier era Black Friday events, the sale events were not as common among retailers and attracted smaller crowd. The sales were always single day, usually limited hours, mostly had the same merchandise seen throughout the year, and sometime had very deep discounts (70% off or better). The sales became more popular as it got more press. Retailers saw the trend and adapted to the consumers. Merchandise that was discounted started being specifically ordered for Black Friday, sometimes of very different quality than the usual merchandise. Online retailers started making pre- and post- sales, essentially transforming it into a week event. This is to increase the money made from the event. Of course, while people are generally assumed to be "dumb," given enough time, people will adapt resistances and will not be caught in the spun web.
That would be 90% of women, and 0% of men.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
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Pretty sure the OP meant "minority" the mathematical sense - "the smaller part or number; a number, part, or amount forming less than half of the whole" rather than referring to the standard US understanding of racial minorities.
I think the poster may have been trying to make a pun on "black" Friday = "African-American" Friday.
It's kinda hard to tell, though
"was a frantic day of driving to the store at the crack of dawn to fight off other shoppers for great deals. "
Just like the other 364 days, we now shop online on Black Friday.
No fights and we can sit on the couch in our underwear, just like any other shopping day.
I'm saving money and a heart attack by not shopping. There is nothing new to buy anyway. This holiday I'm getting my kids bonds and a few small things they really want. They're constantly spoiled all year round by grandparents anyway and are perfectly happy already.
Some people only buy things on Black Friday. As in, no discretionary purchases get made until the holiday sales.
That is actually where I have been for the past... 5+ years.
I have basically everything I could want. There are a few things that would be nice to have, space permitting, but nothing that I find necessary to my day to day life.
At this point in time the only things left to get would be towards energy/food independence and renewability through on-site recycling of organic and inorganic waste. Most of that however is restricted by government regulations where I am, so it basically requires relocating somewhere else (possibly outside of the US) to take full advantage of.
Or does it just smell that way?
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
if it was still wake up early on friday instead of postponing thanksgiving dinner or missing football games, 'black friday' would still be significant... but now it's mainly just watered down "sales" of the previous week's mark-ups and 'cheaper than shit' and falls-apart before january 'door busters'.
The people who created it knew it would die. That is why they named it "Black" Friday.
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Now we have just in time sequence, just in time inventory. Before computers stores and chains built up inventory chains that were comparatively inflexible and communications were slow. Moreover feedback on pricing was slow. Now stores have their warehouses floating in containers at sea and overland via rail and trucks. Theres simply no big build up of stock.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
Weirdly, a full 12% of consumers would prefer to shop after Christmas, to capitalize on the post-holiday sales, even though their recipients would get their presents a little late.
So, you ENJOY paying more for the exact same product simply because society says you have to celebrate a holiday on a particular day?
To me, saving money after the holidays isn't weird. It's just different from mainstream thinking. We do this all the time in my household. We celebrate Christmas day as a family (me, wife, 5-year-old) with a couple small, personal gifts. However, we completely avoid the holiday buying frenzy and visiting the extended family because of all the manufactured stress involved. Who should I buy for? What should I buy? Will they like it? Did I get a gift receipt? Who should I visit? Who should come over? What time are they visiting? What time do we need to leave? Do we need to prepare food? Did we remember to pack the gifts? How much time should we visit with my family? How much time with your family? And on and on and on.
Instead of celebrating with extended family and friends on Christmas Day, we invite everybody over the weekend of MLK Day and that's when we open the bigger gifts and exchange gifts. Almost everybody has a three-day weekend and comes over, we get to shop for gifts at discounted prices, and it's a great way to extend the holiday spirit for a couple of weeks with no real drawbacks. Even if you want to celebrate MLK Day, that's on Monday, so have at it!
I got the idea from my mom when she did something similar for Thanksgiving. When I was in high school and my two older brothers had moved out and were married, she saw all of the manufactured stress occurring with our family and friends in terms of where they were going to be and for how long. She declared that we would celebrate the weekend before Thanksgiving and suddenly ALL the family and ALL the friends showed up and stayed the entire time. And shopping for Thanksgiving food a week early prevented any shopping stress. It was a blast!
At the end of the day, most holidays are manufactured and the date has very little to do with what is being celebrated. Just celebrate them when it works best for you and yours.
If I eat out on Black Friday, it will be at Panda Express for orange chicken, steam rice and chicken egg roll. That's enough food to keep me going all day.
Why panda express? There's nothing wrong with it but.... oh yeah I forgot you're too poor to get eat24 delivered from a real chinese restaurant.
You know what though? You're not too poor because according to you. If you liquidate all your assets you can still buy a car and move to mexico where you can marry an "underage sweet thing".
(It is important to note that you never ever ever said you would, you said all this for the sake of friendly conversation and you believe that dating underage girls is legal and as american as apple pie)
Wealthy people tend to forget this. I grew up poverty stricken and these "small" discounts can actually be quite significant relative to ones income.
Some billionaire may wonder why you bother working 40-50+ hours a week in a professional job when you could be managing a multinational corp or gobbling up realestate. You're only scrapping on that measly $200k paying a mortgage when you could simply buy a bunch of property at opportune times and rent it out, easily earning far more than $200k/yr and have plenty of places to live.
...to get one of the powered carts to sit in line for the chance to buy a $350 TV for the low price of $200, that will fail on exactly day 366 after purchase. No thanks, I already did my Christmas shopping last month online. Some thoughtful gifts from Amazon and some personalized Coca-Cola bottles from the Coca-Cola Company website (expiration dates are August 2018.) The only hard part will be dealing with the post office to get everything shipped.
Black Friday died in the mid 90s when the masses got their mitts on the world wide web.
There used to be actual deals (and freebies) worth getting, and you had a decent chance of getting them if you showed up when the store opened.
Today you have to fight to the death to get a chance at a "good deal" on last year's off brand TV model or $50 off a router that's fundamentally broken out of the box and is EoL so you'll never get firmware updates from the manufacturer, etc. And you have to do it all on Thanksgiving day. And you have to watch for the pre Black Friday sales. And the Cyber Monday sales.
Fuck all that shit. Here's the real pro tip:
Buy what you want up to 30 days before the sales using a Discover IT card. Then use the price protection perk if it goes on sale. Discover IT covers Black Friday. If what you want doesn't go on sale, who cares?
Uh no thanks.
Isn't there a rule for headlines that proclaim "X is dying"?
Like the rule for every article that asks a question means the answer is "No" ?
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
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I supposed telling yourself that every AC who disagrees with you must be Chris is the only way you can justify that you're still a "decent human being" when falsely accusing someone else about wanting child brides. Your wife and children must be proud of your douchebaggery behavior on Slashdot.
so many LCD panels in their dwellings, cars, pockets. I've followed Black Friday Sales since the beginning and have scored on a few occasions. There are fewer and fewer scores to be had as margins shrink and markets saturate. There is no evidence that shows this trend abating.
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We all needs us some privilege.
Chris talks about child brides with unusual regularity. He also spams slashdot with ads and makes a million irrelevant one liners, none of them worthy of downvote but maybe if he's lucky it'll get a single upvote. He'll end up making about 4000 comments not including AC comments if left to his own devices.
I had hoped by bringing up his creepy tendencies it would keep people like you from white knighting him and make him post less. But until he sticks his dick in a kid and posts it on the internet I guess that you think he deserves a fair trial in the court of public opinion.
Why do you care anyhow. All the creimer spam gets nested down 5 layers deep so you never see them. Don't give me that you have to browse at -1 to see anything anymore shit either. It's entirely not true most stories have about 30 exposed comments and more if you want to have a discussion. The only people who complain are guys who think time is a cube and obama is an android from kenya.... and of course guys who think marrying a child is about "getting the most bang for your retirement dollars"
That only works if you retire to Mexico, build a mansion (by local standards), marry an underage sweet thing and bequeath all your possessions to the village.
https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11064719&cid=55122609
If all my assets were liquidated, I would still have enough cash to buy a new car and head off to Mexico to find a chica to marry.
https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11064719&cid=55125199
As for my comment, I've heard stories of engineers retiring at 50, moving to Mexico and marrying underage girls. Since I work with ex-military, the Philippines is a popular retirement spot for marrying underage girls as well. It's all about getting the most bang for your retirement dollars.
https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11064719&cid=55123241
You're aware that are some states in the U.S. that allow underage marriage as young as 14 years old?
https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11064719&cid=55123829
Finally how does assuming that most pro-chris ACs are chris help me pretend to be a better person? I can tell someone failed philosophy. Chris deserves to be fucked with and I want to fuck with him, we're even nice enough to keep from shitting up the main threads but you still come down to the sub-basement to look and cry about it.
i suspect the "12% of consumers would prefer to shop after Christmas," actually shop for Chinese New Year , my familly being multicultural (i'm caucasian born in north america , my wife Chinese born and raised in China) , we chose not to celebrate xmas and western new year because it simply just became way too comercial to our taste , celebrating chinese nwe year instead also give us all the time during the holydays for shopping etc , not to mention how hungry for sales stores are after pretty much everybody thinks CC bills instead of spending yet more , playing cold shoulder with salesmen works 20x over
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I understand the problem they have with the system, however i do not respect the BLM organization or their current chosen methods of protest, i think it only serves to drive deeper rifts between the races. If they want to change the system they need to be a uniting force not the divisive entity they currently are and when they change their tactics, then maybe they will get more respect.
Spoken like a typical, dumb fucking Repug.
You have made it quite clear that you don't understand the problem they have with the system. The First Amendment applies to ALL citizens, not just whitey.
Repugs love the Constitution, as long as in ain't no nìgger taking knee during the National Anthem. Ain't that right, Billy-Bob?
Just ask my wife and her best friend. It's an event. They make shirts. They get up at 4 AM. It's like their Super Bowl, and they love it. The parking lots are full, there are throngs of people everywhere, and I highly doubt it's dying.
The rest of us may be happy to shop anytime/anywhere/Amazon/etc, but there are people who love Black Friday.
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
Let's get this discussion back on topic.
Do you feel like there are different parts of mexico that are better for different kinds of brides? Would you care to tell us what the age of consent laws are there?
Do you have any other creepy stories or factoids you want to share with us? What's the age of consent on the moon?
I've always enjoyed working the day after Thanksgiving. Not many other people are working so traffic is lite. The office is quiet. Few if any drive-by requests happen. Gives me time to get some tasks done, plus hang out in the cafe with coworkers and casually socialize.
They basically made Black Friday disappear when they decided that Friday at 5:00 a.m, juuuuuust wasn't quite early enough. So it became 4 a.m.. Then the next store thought, I better open at midnight to beat every body else! Then it started to run into Thanksgiving time, which nobody really wanted. It's the old story of killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
I have everything material I could reasonably want. A roof over my head, a job, a car, some money for unforeseen circumstances...
The crux of the matter is that I don't live in a big house in an expensive neighborhood. My car is a 14 year old compact car. My job isn't the best but it pays the bills and offers some stability. I could earn more if I switched jobs but that would add stress and uncertainty.
Growing up, I was always told to save up before buying anything and that debt is frowned upon. So I worked through my education which took longer to complete this way, I don't borrow money for a nice new car, no mortgage.
Sure, I'd like to ride a jetski on a private lake, but I can't afford that. Do I want to own a jetski? Well, maybe, but realistically I can't justify the expense. That goes for a lot of things. I don't buy many expensive toys. I might rent it for a few days, same fun, less money.
Anyway, not sure what my point is, except from this: adjust your wants, focus on your needs. And be content with what you have.
It is now official. Netcraft has confirmed: *BSD is dying.
Fuck Ajit Pai
Don't forget BUY IT!!
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
It seems like craziness starts earlier each year. It used to be on Thanksgiving day, but now shoppings starts on Thanksgiving eves. So no more hungry family gatherings for those times for the shoppers. :/
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I usually go after the rush when the stores are a wreck and pick up scraps - I usually get out spending g not much money for really cheap things like memory cards, flash drives and other small things etc that will be like 75% off or more on black friday
The deals aren't worth it anymore. I've gone off and on to Black Friday sales. Back in the early 2000's when I first started going, stores had killer deals. They had significant numbers of the items in stock, and some stores like Staples even let you order it at the sale price on their website using the in-store kiosk. It was worth it to stand in line a couple of hours to get a great deal on a couple of large ticket items. I stopped going because the deals became lackluster, as in not much better than a regular sale price. The deals that were a large break were limited to only a couple per store, with no rainchecks or online ordering option. Basically unless you were one of the first two or three people in the door, you weren't going to get a deal. Why bother standing in line at that point?
Every once in a while a post comes along that deserves more than a 5 score.
That was classic
and yet I have received 10 emails about Black Friday sales and endless streaming ads and so far 3 snail mails on it and its DYING..yeah right