The main and only benefit from Black Friday does come by way of the enlarged profits from the many scores of customers. One Sport's Authority store in Maryland is expecting to reap in 150,000$ in sales on Friday, some 50,000$ more than the previous year. The main point being... that although many have expected this year's sales to give the economy a much needed boost, don't get your hopes up. So what do you guys think about black friday?; And will you be part of the mob going out shopping at 5 a.m? I know i wont, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Friday, November 26, 2010
A Head Start on Black Friday
This years Black Friday sales are expected to rise 2.3 percent from last year's to 447$ billion, however some are skeptical as to whether this will stimulate some sort of "pick-up" the economy needs. However this Thanksgiving some 18+ million people went to the stores to shop, a surprisingly high number given the predicted "spending mood". Personally, I believe Black Friday is pretty much mostly hype about something secretly quite deceiving. Companies advertise huge sales and great discounts but when one actually goes to buy, the "deals" are actually quite selective, not to mention the enormous crowds of people all hurrying to save on a glitzy Gymboree tie for their spoiled 3 year old.
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Funny, my cousins and I were just talking about going to the stores early tomorrow morning! I think that part of the appeal is just the experience of shopping on Black Friday. It's an "everyone's doing it, so I should too!" kind of mindset. The sales really aren't that much better than at other times during the holiday season, but it just seems exciting to go. And stores definitely benefit, especially this year with so much hype about the day! I do find it a little bit odd that it's the day after Thanksgiving, when we're all supposed to be grateful for what we have...
I do agree with Jessia's point about how it's kind of a crowd thing..since everyone does it...why not me?
I think another big part of it is just the tradition...it's somewhat of an official beginning for the Christmas season...and it's just a special shopping day...even if they sales aren't that special. I like Black Friday just because it continues in that holiday-ie mood. A lot of people I know get hyped up about going...but being seniors...we feel that sleep is priceless.
I have to admit that I think Black Friday is mostly just hype as well, and it's just to get people excited to go shopping and spend money (which is good for stimulating the economy, of course). The fact that "everyone else is doing it" actually makes Black Friday an even less attractive notion to me; though I've never been to the stores on Black Friday, I think it would be really difficult to shop effectively with such big crowds anyway, at such early hours in the morning.
One random question, purely out of curiosity: Why is Black Friday called Black Friday?
From about.com - "Black Friday is the name given to the shopping day after Thanksgiving. It was originally called Black Friday because so many people went out to shop that it caused traffic accidents and sometimes even violence. (Source: Wikipedia, Black Friday)
Later, the Black Friday name took on a different meaning. It was used to reflect that it was a profitable day for retailers. Accountants generally use black to signify profit, and red to signify loss when recording retailers' books."
While Black Friday is nothing but a name for the day after Thanksgiving, it has become the biggest shopping day of the year. With the advent of internet shopping, there is even Cyber Monday now. I think there is more in the minds of people, as we've already said. But also, there are some great steals on Black Friday, and if the shopping spree is going to help the economy keep going, that's great. I heard a few days ago on NPR that Americans are beginning to conserve; we're starting to do what we ought to have done a few years ago and not spend money we don't have. That's good for the long term, but bad for today because the only way to get the economy going is to spend money. I hope that this year's Black Friday, with 138 million Americans hitting stores, (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101126/bs_nm/us_usa_retail_blackfriday) will be enough to help our economy out.
I never really participated in Black Friday just because I think that it's kind of ridiculous to wait outside a store at midnight just for some "huge" deals. Large crowds wait outside the stores and once they open, people run in like they've never seen such a great deal..and then people get hurt. Just like how Bryce said in this blog post, the ones that reap the most benefits from this are the stores themselves, not the customers. Throughout the year, there are always large sales but for some reason, people think that the best deals come on Black Friday.
Like Eunice said, the stores are the ones benefiting, not the customers. I was watching a news report on Black Friday and they said the stores were able to offer electronics at such a low cost because the product itself is manufactured with less features, than you would normally have if you bought it at regular price. So is it really worth it to wait in line that long, if you're getting a substandard product?
Black Friday definitely gives shoppers the opportunity to go on a shopping frenzy that gives them complete freedom to buy whatever they desire for low prices. I do find it crazy that some people camp out in front of stores DAYS before Black Friday and get there way early in the morning. It's a real good bargain for consumers and the stores make a huge profit from the sales. It's something that everyone should take advantage of and a chance for people to do some early Christmas shopping!
I don't think Black Friday is worth it at all unless you're going to Best Buy or one of those big technology stores where you already know what you want, where it is, who you're going to have to push out of the way, and how much you're going to save. Even then...I still don't think it's worth it just because everyone gets catty when they're all fighting for the same deals on the same stuff. Camping out in this freezing weather though...? definitely not worth it for me. I'd rather stay home and sleep.
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