The Decline of Black Friday

What happened to Black Friday?

[NoMoreCrumbs]

Turns out that if you don't pay your workers, they can't afford to participate in the consumer economy. Who could have predicted this?

[pisceanbeauty]

Multiple reasons why Black Friday isn’t as much of a thing anymore:

1. Online shopping becoming ubiquitous and the decline of brick and mortar shopping
2. Extended period of sales before and after Friday
3. Economic strains
4. Behavior changes as a legacy of the pandemic
5. Increased fear of large crowds due to concerns about violence, crime, mass shootings, stampedes, etc.
6. Segments of the population becoming less consumeristic/more conscious about sustainability
7. Shifts in what people consume (travel, entertainment, digital media, etc.) and fewer hot button must-haves capturing the zeitgeist (I.e Tickle Me Elmo).

[kennyb]

This year I had my eyes on a few items more wants then needs so I wasn’t really tripping about not getting them but I then noticed on Black Friday that what a lot of stores were doing was raising the prices extremely high and then lower them back down to the original price to make it look like a “sale” I just rolled my eyes and left.

[brokenfoxproductions]

This video hit me a little harder than it should have because I was a Walmart employee on Black Friday of 2019 and I literally was injured because of customers kicking me while frantically trying to get to products that I was putting back out on the shelves after they had run out. Never mind on top of that that Walmart forces their employees to do a mandatory 12-hour shift on Black Friday, meaning that I had to work from 7:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving until 7:00 a.m. on Black Friday after having taken care of my kids the whole Thanksgiving Day. I no longer work at Walmart but I do still work retail and I really appreciate that more people are shopping online because the way people act whenever they do Black Friday in stores is ridiculous. Nobody should be getting into fist fights over toys, nobody should be shot for an Xbox, and poor single parents working in retail jobs shouldn't be getting hurt at work.

[johnpenguintherd]

I'm happy Black Friday is "dead". Too many real life horror stories over the years. On the good side: It definitely helped that Black Friday sales were happening an entire week before the actual Black Friday (that spread things out) and lots of online deals. On the bad side, about 90% of the Black Friday sales were very poor compared to other years (just not low enough in most cases). On the ugly side: there is an unofficial financial crisis since A LOT of people are BROKE ("thanks" inflation).

[TimothyCollins]

Truth be told, greed destroyed black Friday. Stores ruined their own holiday by creeping it earlier and earlier. Now bkack Friday is just another day in a two month period of Christmas stuff.

[jamesfarley]

The best Truth Be Told line was at the end when he said "I doubt that housing, health care and education will go on sale anytime soon" 🥺🤨

[kumaxhime]

I was a salesperson at a furniture store for 2 years. Hated it, but it helped me pay for college. In the days leading up to Black Friday, we would have to make a big handwritten price tag to put on every piece of furniture (of which there were hundreds) with the "sale price." Of course, we were just writing the normal price and removing the usual price tag. It was a huge waste of time and paper, strained the backs of older employees, and built distrust in the customers who weren't as stupid as management wanted to think.Then we'd open at 6 AM on Black Friday instead of the usual 9 AM, and all salespeople were required to be there, and hardly any customers would show up for hours. Then when we would finally have our turn to greet a customer (which wasn't often with every salesperson being there for the 14 hour work day), we'd get chastised when a customer noticed our bullshit tactics or something wasn't in stock (none of which we had control over). I've literally had nightmares about the experience 🙃

[MrBaskins]

the man being trampled to death reduced frequency of the phrase "doorbuster" in walmart ads

[glassman]

You need to feel for the delivery drivers. They are overworked, many are underpaid and given the fact that delivery vehicles and drivers are being held up at gunpoint, they are working under dangerous and stressful conditions.

[mmaantj]

Id say its a W if people arent dying from black friday anymore

[tonyfair]

I'm proud to say that I have never participated in this nonsense.

[Thehouseoffail]

I used to do black friday because the stores actually stock all their sizes and put out more interesting fashion. I would always go out and look for embroidered jeans. Even online these aren't easy to find. It wasn't about savings, it was about availability.

I'll admit, it was also because it felt like an exciting way to kick off the Christmas season.

I stopped when they started making the "sales" begin before Thanksgiving. I wasn't able to depend on increased and refreshed stock anymore. Christmas music starts in November, stores start selling christmas merch in October, and the christmas movies take over some tv channles in September! It all stopped feeling like something to look foreward too.

By trying to make Christmas a 3 month event, they caused me to stop spending as much.

[seana]

I also think that since everyone has some sort of smart device, there’s no great rush to go out on Black Friday like there was in the early 2010’s when such items were a luxury. It’s one of those “When everyone gets one, what else is there to keep the interest up” kind of thing that has led to the decline of Black Friday. Also it’s not worth the time anymore, sometimes you’ll find the best deals in the summer and springtime when there’s a surplus of merchandise since sales slow down a little during the spring and summer months.

[frooostedflakes]

It definitely helped break up traffic when businesses started to run their sales the entire week leading up to Black Friday instead of Friday only. I work at Best Buy and I was terrified for my first Black Friday last year but it was VERY tame compared to the horror stories. This year had even less traffic. I’m sure covid had something to do with less traffic as well but sales all week is definitely helpful.

[roseinthestorm]

Your comment at 8:10 really struck me. The only Black Friday shopping I did this year was to buy shoes for my family. We all desperately needed shoes, and Black Friday was the only time we could afford new ones.

[bleeploughly]

I’ve worked at kohls part time since I was 18, I’m 25 now. Back when I was younger there were always people lined up waiting for hours to get into kohls late on thanksgiving night. And it wasn’t just kohls, target, Walmart, Best Buy-all those stores had lines of people waiting to get in. Now that doesn’t happen. The holidays are busier than other times of year yes, but compared to previous holiday seasons things are actually pretty dead. What is different though is the increase in online orders. I work BOPUS (buy online pick up in store) for my kohls and I was significantly busier than the cashiers even. So many online orders it messed up our system multiple times. I was running around the store fulfilling online orders while the cashiers were kinda just standing around. I imagine it was crazy busy for other retailers online orders too. I enjoy the busyness of the holidays but it makes me a tiny bit sad that it’s declining. Kohls isn’t my main job so I don’t care too much, but it’s still sad to see

[aquaruisangel]

As an ex retail and food worker I always had major mental breakdowns before and after holiday season because I was always TERRIFIED of being over demanded by several persons for my attention 🤮 😂😅 buuut now that I’m officially off the job market forever (I became disabled after pregnancy) It was interesting too see people loose empathy for the unemployed the more they hated their job/couldn’t afford to “not work” even tho we (the jobless/unwanting/unable) are ALSO struggling. Im grateful we all spend covid alone with our thoughts and reflecting that maybe we are acting inhuman. I hope Black Friday is never a thing again.

[KazmaKit]

I broke my phone the day before Thanksgiving, so I had to put on a brave face and deal with Black Friday to get a new one. It definitely wasn't as many people as I expected. It was similar to like the week or two before Christmas. Glad it's dying out finally.

[cdot.]

I’m glad the consumer has more control over how we get our stuff and when.