Black Friday is a day for shoppers to get great deals and shop for low prices. Black Friday has been around since the late 1980s, but there have definitely been some changes. When you think of Black Friday, you might think of people rushing to stores, filling up shopping carts, and waiting in hour-long lines. But nowadays, is that really the reality?
“Black Friday,” a term used to describe the Friday after Thanksgiving, when stores have huge sales. This sounds great, but how did it come to be? In Philadelphia in the 1960s, police officers used the term “Black Friday” because when tourists came, they started going to holiday shopping, which was a crazy time for police with all of the shoplifting and chaos. Black Friday has now evolved into a time when stores offer big sales for the holidays.
Technology has become an aspect of everyone’s life, whether they like it or not. Online shopping is a big way people’s lives have changed due to technology. A lot of people shop online, and stores have even been shut down because people wouldn’t go in person and would just buy online. According to sellerscommerce.com, “There are 2.77 billion global online shoppers.” 2.77 billion people make up about 33% of the world’s population!
Black Friday has turned from rushing to stores to buy things on sale before they all sell out to scrolling on an electronic device, finding everything you would in a store, but faster. People buy online because it is faster and easier to access. You don’t even have to get out of bed in the morning to go shopping if you do it online. The concept of finding something you like and it showing up on your doorstep a few days later is satisfying to people. It allows them to get more things done instead of having to spend hours at a store or at the mall. This change from in-store to online came more present at a certain time period. As you probably know, COVID-19 changed a lot of people and society, especially online. 49% of buyers shop online more than they did before COVID-19. Technology has affected Black Friday and has even developed a new day, “Cyber Monday.”
In 2005, Cyber Monday officially began. Cyber Monday takes place on the Monday after Black Friday. Cyber Monday is a special day when online stores have sales. Even though Black Friday has been affected by technology, and now many buy online during Black Friday, it is still traditional to shop in-store on Black Friday. Cyber Monday is the day to shop online because that is when the online sales are at their peak.
Black Friday has drastically changed since it first started. From chaos for police to many shopping online, it is still a fun day to shop for the holidays. Online shopping may be a large factor in the shopping world today, but in-store shopping is still present and can be a fun time to hang out with friends and family and spend money you wouldn’t normally spend.
