Embedded Files
Photographed by Angel Cherian (12-1)
There is truth in the statement that comfort lies in familiarity. So it’s certainly not surprising that holiday traditions in America remain consistent year after year. Thanksgiving, the kickoff of the holiday season, is one of these timeless events. Every year, families gather around the dinner table and scarf down a scrumptious repast of poultry, potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Yet, there’s another star of this celebratory long weekend: Black Friday.
Black Friday is a holiday that originated in 1924, thanks to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Due to the immense size of the retailer, Macy’s heavy hand in promoting the Friday after Thanksgiving as the shopping day of the year permanently secured the reputation of the holiday. Because this did wonders for the pockets of businessmen working for huge companies, it became such an essential event for retailers that presidents moved up the Thanksgiving holiday multiples times to allow shoppers more time to make purchases.
Philadelphia was the city that profited the most from this craze. Shoppers poured in from all over the country to watch the annual Army-Navy football game held the Saturday after Thanksgiving in Philadelphia. As most arrived a day in advance to settle housing arrangements or spend time with friends and family in the city, they were able to spend peak sale hours on Friday rummaging through the racks for a new item or twenty. Therefore, Philadelphia was bestowed with the honor of naming this phenomenon. They christened it Black Friday, borrowing the name from a 19th-century stock market frenzy. As Black Friday became more and more popular, companies did their best to remove the negative connotations of the word “black” in the title of a celebratory event, with no success. Nevertheless, shoppers didn’t mind the name, and as time continued to pass, Black Friday became known as what it is today, dropping prices and increasing advertising to attract more attention than the year prior.
It’s not at all difficult to summon memories of typical Black Friday festivities. People of all ages wake up before the morning sun, eager to greet a locked glass door and a “Closed until...” sign. Penny pinchers gather their loose change and clutch their wallets near their hearts, specks of dust among the masses shivering in the bleak winter air, hoping for the deal of their lives. None of it seems easily replaceable. But there’s a truth lurking behind the moonlit corners of the joyous occasion.
As we enter a new decade, it becomes impossible to ignore the rapidly increasing success of another retail day: Cyber Monday. The concept seems undefeatable: Black Friday without needing to leave your home! Murmurs in the Masterman halls confirm the suspicions of the superiority of this relatively new phenomenon, as students talk about items already placed in their virtual carts, ready for purchase upon waking after their lengthy turkey-weekend slumbers. And Macy’s, the company that kicked off the Friday event? They’re one of the many brick-and-mortar retailers suffering the consequences of the internet shopping craze. 15% of Macy’s stores have permanently closed since last year, with some closing sometime in the foreseeable future. The advantages are synonymous with the disadvantages. There’s no more waking up before sunrise, no more camping out waiting for stores to open, no more pushing and shoving over that last pair of jeans that fit like a glove. While there may be comfort in familiarity, Cyber Monday is proof that there may be a superior comfort for the typical consumer: the comfort of one’s own home. It may be time to say goodbye to Black Friday
Page updated
Report abuse