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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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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/
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.
Good job going off half-cocked, though!
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
I'm pretty certain he meant uninformed tight-arses, not a specific race.
The kind of people who don't realise two things.
1. There is a time cost. Spending 6 hours to save 20% often isn't worth it. Not to mention the cost of fuel.
2. Prices are raised in preparation for the holiday sales, then dropped less than that amount for black Friday.
Savvy people buy this stuff off peak when meaningful discounts are offered to keep stock moving (January or just before the end of the financial year in your nation). Many of us have just given up on stores entirely because we get better prices online. Especially for stuff that goes into stupid prices around Christmas like toys and games, what little of this I had to buy for relatives, I bought months ago.
Fairly certain a savvy black or Latino would have done the same thing. I'm not smart because I'm white, I'm smart because I actually thought about things and planned ahead.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
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.
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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'
When you use the term "dedicated minority", are you referring to African Americans and Hispanic Americans?
No, we're referring to the dedicated idiots living in tent city outside a Best Buy for a week to get $150 off a TV. That kind of stupidity is not bound by race.
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.
Really? Most of the shit I see the Black Friday dedicated idiots standing in line for is not what poverty would define as "essential", so spare me the rhetoric about making ends meet. If they were that desperate, they wouldn't be giving up 3 days worth of income to stand in line for a fucking video game console.
Poverty means you're shopping at the second-hand store, garage sales, or goodwill, which will always beat the shit out of any store sale, and certainly doesn't require anyone to wait for Black Friday.
... 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
First yo!
*third
But it was the first "yo!"
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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.
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.
Free HDTV boxes? I'm going to Walmart right now!
#DeleteFacebook
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.
I thought that in reality, it's exactly the opposite for poor people - for necessary items at least, you can't "wait until the price is right" since you can't save the money, there's always something to be paid ASAP.
Ezekiel 23:20
Buy them 100K Dogecoin each. Who knows what will happen within a decade?
#DeleteFacebook
It doesn't matter that it's mostly(*) cheap crap. If a laptop is otherwise not affordable to someone, and they can find a full Windows laptop for $130 (that's an actual Dell deal on an existing model this year, not a made up cheap crap model) that their kids can do homework on, that they can do online banking and job searches on, then it's still worth it.
(*) It's true that the majority of offers, especially on electronics, seem to be for items that are not normally available at those stores from manufacturers whose names you never heard (or are already known for making cheap crap), and even "real" manufacturers who've made some cheap junk for "door busters," but there are deals to be had. I've participated in BF when there was actually something I had my eye on that was going to be significantly cheaper. There are good deals on things besides electronics. I've never waited over night, or in a tent city, but often retailers are inclined to offer something to compete with the likes of Best Buy and Walmart just to get people in the door.
I still participate, too - but from the comfort of my computer chair. I'd been wanting to switch mobile carriers and did it on BF a couple of years ago, getting excellent deals on new phones for the family (which served as their main Christmas presents).
Now I need to wonder why people "stress" about it. If the vast majority of us don't participate (I've only done it a couple of times), then why would we stress? There's something seriously wrong with the American psyche... too many people stress about unimportant things like this. If you work in retail and are actually "forced" to work Thanksgiving, or any time over that weekend, I can see that as being stressful.... but that's not 80% of us. And, for the record, I've worked on Thanksgiving and didn't stress about it (I work in television). The police are still working; many people at the big game (whichever one you want to watch) are working - security, ticketing, concessions, cleaning staff, the people setting up and maintaining the field and equipment, and the players - all working for your pleasure on Thanksgiving (and don't forget us TV folks who are broadcasting it to you - not just the director and camera operators, there's a lot more people involved than most people know). Police are working, fire fighters are working, the news people in all media are working, hospital staff is working, people making sure you have the electric to watch the big game and cook your Thanksgiving dinner are working.... it's actually quite a large list, and nobody seems to give a crap about them.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
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.
And all of those "poor" people don't seem to have any problem finding plenty of money to buy liquor, cigarettes, lottery tickets, crack, weed and other "necessities".
You seem to know a lot about "all of those 'poor' people." Don't believe everything you read on Breitbart.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
SHHHHHHH,
No-one tell him it was just basic comprehension and common sense. Any reading of the GP's post that is indistinguishable from telepathy is insufficiently competent.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
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.
I'm pretty certain he meant uninformed tight-arses, not a specific race.
Wow, your telepathy is amazing. Tell us how you can read minds like that! Judging by your weird nonstandard spelling, you come from a country without the legacy of Jim Crow, and thus have no idea what you're talking about. Pro TIP: shut the fuck up when you want to say anything about racial issues you have no idea about.
At the risk of unveiling my awesome lexical abilities to the unwary, "black" day is typically associated with a catastrophe, not a race. Looking around it seems it was first used to describe bad traffic conditions in start of the Christmas shopping season.
the terms "Black Friday" and "Black Saturday" came to be used by the police in Philadelphia and Rochester to describe the crowds and traffic congestion accompanying the start of the Christmas shopping season.
And yes, I come from a country where institutionalised racism wasn't a thing in living memory. This isn't something I'm particularly ashamed of and maybe you should take your own advice when talking about things you clearly have no knowledge of.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Not to mention available stock and buying other items not on your list. "I'm going to the store to get $100 off this TV. Oh, wait, there were only 5 in stock and I was the 10th person. I guess I'll buy this other TV instead since it says it's $50 off. Oh and might as well grab these things also."
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
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?
Minority, as in a small part of a population. Not defined by any other parameter except number. The topic is about percentage of the populations, so yes, I was using the mathematical term.
I bought my last TV about 5 years ago. And the best deal was about 2 weeks before Black Friday. At least $50 less than the Black Friday price.
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 thought it was called Black Friday because it was the day that the accounts of most retail companies would no longer be "in the red". Referring to accounting practice of marking losses/profits in ledgers in red/black ink.
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
Then what will you buy them *NEXT* year?
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But the entitlement mentality has firmly set in. We comment about people on welfare with iPhones and expensive plans - because I can accept that a phone can be considered a necessity, but we're still subsidizing people who receive some kind of welfare to have expensive phones and plans instead of inexpensive ones. We're paying for their food, so they can take whatever they have left and waste it.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
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100K Reddcoins each.
At this point there's plenty of crypto-currencies to answer that question for nearly three centuries.
#DeleteFacebook
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
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.
This is part of the problem. Black Friday used to be "Black Friday". now it is Black 2-weeks-in-November.
If only it were two weeks. I've been getting Black Friday emails from the idiots at Best Buy and NewEgg since the beginning of October. That's likely why it has no meaning, when retailers use it to mean "sale". I'm tempted to have my email app dump anything containing "black friday" in the subject into the trash.
I don't know, but it works for me.
It is now official. Netcraft has confirmed: *BSD is dying.
Fuck Ajit Pai
I bought mine a few years ago. Top-end plasma, best price was in Sept IIRC.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
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).
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?