I used to dream of tagging along with my mom and older siblings, waking up before sunrise to score doorbuster deals. The consumerist dream of a small child.
As much as I grapple with the consumerism I’ve been taught and am still surrounded with 24/7, I still know when a good deal is a good deal. Black Friday can be a good opportunity to grab things I’ve been waiting to buy all year at a better price. But do these good deals even exist anymore?
My impression as a child was that 50% off was standard for the best sales of the year, which now feels extreme for most brands. I don’t even know if free shipping is standard anymore for Cyber Monday.
There’s less focus on Black Friday as a single day of sales, too. First, stores started extending sales to the night before, luring shoppers out of their homes after a feast. Now, brands host week-long Black Friday deals, or even for the entire month of November. Cyber Monday itself has withered away as Black Friday takes over the month.
I actually think the latter is a good change. I’m hopeful that extended sales encourage people to make thoughtful purchases rather than buying a lot at once just because of sales. At the same time, the deals have gotten so much worse. Fast fashion brands overproducing clothing of mediocre quality fueled by exploitation feel comfortable charging $45 a tank top and doing a BOGO 50% sale for Black Friday. As a DVD collector family, heading to Target to snag the movie releases of the past year for $5 was tradition, yet as DVDs are as unpopular as ever, $15 price tags have started to crop up among the cheaper prices.
Not to get it twisted, the brands themselves are hoping to make more sales rather than encourage mindful shopping. The slow creep of an earlier start to Black Friday is their attempt to recover as trends indicate that people are spending less on non-necessities.
And these companies have reason to fear for their profits. Sustainably minded folks have been calling for boycotts of the event in years past, and even small businesses have participated. Lately, several companies have been the target of boycotts in support of Palestine, with some suggesting a boycott of Black Friday altogether for the same cause. Maybe it’s for the best for these brands to break a nervous sweat as consumers hold them accountable.
In the past, I would spend all year looking forward to Black Friday, and now I look forward to sleeping in. The latter is definitely more beneficial for my well-being.