Black Friday: The Holiday That's No More

Naomi Tamene - November 18th, 2022

When’s the last time you actually went out shopping on Black Friday? Not just any day when Black Friday deals were happening, but actual Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Can’t remember? Me either, and according to a New York Times article, “PWC found that only 36 percent of shoppers surveyed planned to stock up on Black Friday, the actual day,” and that was in 2019, before COVID happened and everyone got used to online shopping! So if no one actually goes out shopping on Black Friday anymore…why is it still a thing?

Well, think about how you feel whenever you hear about Black Friday deals. The phrase “Black Friday” is a cue to our brains that Christmas shopping is here and we need to start buying stuff to take advantage of the deals. Black Friday has been a thing for so long that everyone feels that by now. Everyone’s going to hear about Black Friday deals and are going to want to go shopping. Stores need to take advantage of that feeling because that’s when they bring in the most money. Why do you think there’s so many shopping holidays nowadays? Amazon Prime Day, Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday, it’s all to bring in more money. So if Black Friday is just as meaningless as all these other days, we need to let go of this idea that Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving. Because it’s no longer any day specifically.

There’s Black Friday sales going on in October, September, during times that are nowhere near Thanksgiving. According to that same New York Times article, “Lowe’s and Home Depot even had Spring Black Friday sales.”

Black Friday’s just a marketing tactic now. A term to make us spend money, nothing more.

Friedman, Vanessa. “What Does ‘Black Friday’ Even Mean Anymore?” The New York Times, 27 Nov. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/style/black-friday-has-no-meaning.html.