It seems apropos that the term “Black Friday” wasn’t even uttered in most of the United States until as late as the mid-greed period of the 1980s. Most people who were young and living before the ’80s would remember that day once being designated…well, merely the day after Thanksgiving. Moreover, it was usually considered just one day out of many where you could do your Christmas shopping without needing an Advil after taking on a bruise or fracture during a price markdown.
Little did we know that by the 1990s, America would effectively take a term once used for financial collapse and spin it into a more festive moniker. It was arguably the ’90s when Black Friday found its best footing in America, despite many today thinking the overall concept has always been the same.
Most of us can probably recall a memory of taking part in a Black Friday at any point in the 1990s and finding some true magic in a joyous event. It was right in the middle of a time when America was far removed from 80s greed and living in economic prosperity. That kind of rare goodwill mixture usually fosters a gilded age when it comes to the world of finances and retail sales.
And, indeed, you can call that period Black Friday’s golden age when the thought of people setting up tents outside a retail store a week in advance would have meant a warrant for arrest.
You can say the same about someone plotting a knee whack just to get the last early prototype CD player (yes, CD player!) on the shelf.
When the downcast 2000s began, however, retail stores decided to play up on the weak psychological condition of the American people once accustomed to buying freely a decade earlier. Extreme markdowns created a stampede effect that’s already led to a few deaths and plush Elmo toys having their heads pulled off in tugs-of-war.
It’s all enough to spook past Black Friday veterans into ever going out on Black Friday again. But what the old guard discards, the new guard seems to assimilate.
As much as everybody decries materialism around the holidays, it’s clear millions of people are still willing to make every concerted effort to acquire more things on Black Friday. Most of these individuals appear to be born in more recent decades and possibly have no recall of a peaceful experience of shopping.
All other generations braving the madness seem to be ones who think you can’t find bargains on the Internet. Now with the questionable idea of shopping on Thanksgiving, the future of this shopping tradition seems to be in trouble.
Where will Black Friday ultimately end up in the generation following us? With online shopping and Cyber Monday becoming so popular, we may already be seeing a major dichotomy developing in the American shopper. The same goes for those who once valued assimilating a sense of home on Thanksgiving.
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The success of Cyber Monday seems to be due in part to those frustrated with the shopping experience on more recent Black Fridays. Cyber Monday may also be the new cloak behind those who crave materialism, yet simply don’t want to be seen taking part in public. Either way, from a societal point of view, a true American divide has occurred among those who abhor Black Friday and those who unabashedly gravitate toward it.
Even though defenders of Black Friday say you can find better discounts and deals in the store over online, increasingly astounding deals found online are growing. This bites back at the argument you need to act like a barbaric hunter in a retail store to save money on buying holiday gifts.
An indefinite Black Friday of the future may ultimately see the same group of battle-weary people return who’ve been veterans of our more recent Black Fridays. And those who gave it up long ago to restore a sense of true holiday meaning will be behind the curtain of exclusive online shopping.
What happens, though, to the new phenomenon of Black Thanksgiving (or Thursday) and the public reaction?
You’ve likely heard or seen detractors of Black Friday instantly lament and boycott the idea of stores opening already on Thanksgiving Day. It’s a new temptation in the retail world to get those out of the house who apparently have too much annual familial rivalry. Synonymously, it begins a morsel of erosion to one of the most meaningful American-created holidays of the year.
In another few years, this new retail enticement is sure to siphon families away from communing on the one holiday allowing such a thing. It paints a tragic picture of football fanatics watching games in a retail showroom–then purchasing the 50-inch 1080p LCD/LED TV he watched it on for an $1,100 markdown. Follow this with a devastating scene of the shopper dragging the TV box into the house while his perplexed family cleans the pie plate or heads home.
It’s the alternate world scenario akin to Mr. Potter’s world in “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
On the logical flip side, it’s retail stores having to do this to fight against economic stagnancy. Yet most of us couldn’t have imagined early Thanksgiving shopping ending up as a battle of the wills.
The only way out is one thing that becomes the bane of even diehard Black Friday enthusiasts: Starting even earlier.
Prepare for Black One Week Before Thanksgiving Sales in less than five years. As with TV holiday specials, getting everything out of the way early leaves a lot more idle time in December to be around your loving or belligerent family.