Black Friday quickly losing its appeal

Hailey Steidle, Contributing writer

If you were to look back 10 years ago Black Friday would have been seen as the largest shopping day of the year.People would begin lining up Thanksgiving night into the early hours of the morning, waiting in freezing cold weather with hundreds of other people just for the chance to score a deal that happened once a year.News stories of stampedes, fights and the destruction of property were often seen for weeks after as multiple people would fight and race each other for the last items available.For years it was thought to be the beginning of the holiday shopping season as many companies would market their products as gifts at the beginning of the nationwide sale. With the mindset of what Black Friday has been in the past the way people interact with the idea of it in 2022 has changed entirely due to events like Cyber Monday taking hold and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cyber Monday has begun to surpass Black Friday in areas such as the amount of sales, the amount of stock available to consumers, and the overall profit made in just a few short days.Companies have begun to market their sales online much earlier and for longer periods of time which makes the actual act of Black Friday shopping lose its appeal to many because people know that if they are not able to get the item that they want then they can just purchase it online at a later date.Many companies such as Amazon and other large retail stores like Walmart and Kohls have begun to offer deals throughout the following week in order to keep customers purchasing their goods. These deals, unlike the deals on Black Friday, are advertised sometimes weeks and months in advance which creates yet another reason for people to purchase less in person and more online. People now know what deals are to come instead of hoping for something better to come up on Cyber Monday. As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in 2020, the appeal of shopping online in general also g re w. Many people were fearful to be around large groups of people or in public spaces as a whole. This is why Cyber Monday became so much more appealing in recent years than Black Friday shopping in stores. The idea of standing in line with others, pushing and shoving, fighting, and being in multiple public spaces all within the same night made many fearful that they would get sick and spread it to their family members especially with people visiting for the holiday. Instead, many turned to the internet to do their shopping as they spent time in the safety of their own homes with their families. The pandemic has led to a lot more online shopping in general. Instead of grocery shopping, people will use services like Instacart to order their groceries for the week. Why waste time going to the store when you can just order groceries from your home and either pick them up or have them dropped off to you?Many people will also order things they need off of Amazon, this way it can be delivered right to their door almost the very next day. This is another reason there is loss in popularity for Black Friday.As time goes on, the idea of Black Friday continues to lose its appeal as events such as Cyber Monday grow in appeal. The idea of being safe and with your family on Thanksgiving instead of waiting in lines for sales that you know will be online in just a few short days has made Black Friday less appealing to many in the public.