For years, retail shopping fanatics have looked forward to the discounts and deals brought by the “holiday” on the Friday following Thanksgiving, commonly known as Black Friday. Customers across the nation used to camp overnight outside Macy’s and other large retailers in hopes of grabbing the cheapest flat-screen TV or furniture for half the price. In recent years, though, the surge of these blockbuster deals has seemed to shrink.
This year, student Abby Rice ’27 looks forward to taking advantage of the supposedly “better” discounts in-store, as opposed to their online counterparts.
“All of the Black Friday sales are just not what they used to be,” Rice said. “I was planning on going to the mall or stores instead of trying to shop online, because I think [the deals] will be better. I’ve started looking at some things because I already saw some Black Friday sales, but I’m hoping the deals get better as it gets closer to Black Friday.”
With sales starting as early as late October this year, many customers have already gotten a jump on their holiday shopping. But for other shoppers, like student Brooke Trombley ’27, Black Friday deals have yet to be a source of excitement so far this holiday season.
“The savings deals were so much less last year that I’m not even sure my mom and I are going to shop on Black Friday,” Trombley said. “There’s just no point in trying to do all your shopping within those few days if the prices are barely going to be less than they were a week before.”
Data analysts from the New York Times have attributed the decreased deals to the rise of federal interest rates and the decline in the amount of fun money the average American has. When Americans are faced with additional economic factors, like inflation and increased tax revenue, which both have occurred over the last few years, it’s generally their discretionary income, or “fun money,” that overcompensates for their more necessary financial requirements. Regardless, Oscar DeLuca ’27 believes that the discounts themselves have barely changed, and that Black Friday has become less exciting because of how present big blockbuster deals are all year-round.
“You can find those big sales at a lot of different times during the year now, like back to school and around Christmas,” DeLuca said. “Honestly, I think the idea of one day with slightly higher deals than normal just doesn’t excite people as much as it used to. I’m still hoping Black Friday will be better this year, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen.”