You’ve just eaten a hearty Thanksgiving meal, tried to discuss politics with family, and gone for a walk. Now it’s time to go to bed in preparation for a day full of shopping.
But now, waking up at the crack of dawn is in the past.
Instead of lining up outside stores to get the best deals, Black Friday is dying. As someone who usually spends the day at either Gurnee Mills or Woodfield Mall in the Chicago suburbs, I have seen this downfall.
I remember stores being flooded with people, all carrying countless items in their hands. Yet, this year, lines were tamer than usual, and people were buying less than you would expect. In retrospect, I blame it on the deals.
Six out of 10 consumers believe Black Friday deals have lost their appeal — and they’re right. As of 2023, the average discount was 35 percent, a relatively low amount compared to earlier years. I bought a total of two items this Black Friday with a “buy one, get one 50 percent off” deal but still spent almost $40.
It’s clear that the traditional concept of Black Friday is evolving. What was once a highly anticipated retail event is now becoming just another day in the broader shopping season.
Haya Hussain, an arts reporter at The Daily Iowan and frequent shopper, used to look forward to the holiday.
“I hate this new layout of Black Friday. It’s like the discounts last for a week, but they aren’t even good. It seems like the same sales percentage that stores recycle throughout the year,” Hussain said.
What used to feel like an exclusive opportunity to grab items at steep discounts now just feels like an extension of regular sales — and not even particularly good ones.
As brick-and-mortar stores struggle to compete with the convenience of online shopping, many are forced to scale back their Black Friday offerings. But even in the age of Amazon, there’s something nostalgic about the old Black Friday experience. The excitement that came from hunting for the best deals in a crowded store, the adrenaline of a successful purchase, and the shared energy of shoppers are fading.
Consequently, like many others, people turn to online shopping, where they can get comparable — if not better — deals without the hassle of waiting in line or dealing with crowded stores. Cyber Monday and Black Friday online shopping is set to make between $10.7 billion and $11 billion in sales — a record high. Along with apparel and technology, the online holiday offers the highest discounts.
“Instead of going out to get clothes last Friday, I just added a bunch of items to my online carts to buy on either Friday or Monday,” Hussain continued.
People are not just buying on Monday but are ditching the malls to shop online. Shoppers spent about $10.8 billion online on Friday alone — a 10 percent increase from last year. To put that in perspective, that’s more than double of what consumers spent in 2017.
Retailers, too, have adapted to this changing environment, offering longer sale windows and more frequent promotions that blend into the larger holiday shopping season. But ultimately, this is changing the holiday spirit.
Black Friday used to be the shopping event of the year, but eventually, it will be history.