The Overwhelm and Underwhelm of Black Friday

Black Friday used to mean waking up in the early morning hours, grabbing some coffee and waiting in the cold outside your selected retail establishment until the doors opened. While sales and shopping have shifted online, the rules around when sales are and for how long have vanished.

It’s common knowledge that Black Friday was the shopping day. This was the day for which you saved your most expensive purchases to buy for the lowest price. This was the best sale of the year and no other discounts would match it. With the rise of the internet, we had the introduction of Cyber Monday and in its infancy it felt like we had achieved a shopping balance: in-person on Friday, online on Monday. I used to go to the mall or outlets on Friday and Amazon on Monday.

As I’ve gotten older and more regularly stimulate the economy, I’ve planned my purchases around Black Friday. I take advantage of deals to get my typical purchases cheaper and I've even planned my wedding spending around Black Friday, filling the cart and waiting for the percent discount to go up. Over time, the shopping timeframe has elongated more than ever before. What was one day, then an extended weekend, has turned into a whole season. The shopping season now starts with the mid-October Prime Day and extends past Christmas.

A few years ago I began to notice a lot of early Black Friday deals, which may be the retail response to Amazon’s Prime Day. Target Circle Week popped up, along with Walmart+ Week and others, conveniently timed around Prime Day. With those being in October, instead of being a point-in-time sale, retailers fill in that space before Black Friday with a myriad of promotions. Now it’s a marathon rather than a sprint.

Last year I ignored the early deals, thinking the best ones were yet to come, only to be disappointed by the missed opportunity. Instead of always increasing, sales seem to diversify; one brand or item this week and another the next.

This year, the sales were plentiful, but lackluster. Between the long sales cycles and the lower discounts, what was once my biggest shopping day became almost boring. Each early Black Friday sale had me wondering if this was the best I would get or if I waited would it be better, even just a little. 

Underwhelming was the lower discounts than prior years. Many of them were 20-30%, which is better than nothing but doesn’t live up to the standard of the “biggest sale of the year”. And some sales weren’t actually sales. As a self-proclaimed Amazon price-stalker, it was easy to notice the items being listed as on sale but the price remained the same from the prior day. The only change was the list price to give the illusion that you were getting a deal. When you know you’re being tricked, it can take the magic out of shopping. 

Overwhelming was the barrage of emails and social media ads on Black Friday. On my side of the algorithm, I didn’t feel too bothered by the early deals compared to the massive wave in my promotions inbox. It was fatiguing; we’ve been shopping since October after all. There also is a sense of FOMO, where you can feel like you’re missing out on a good deal or an opportunity to buy something you’ve been wanting. The onslaught of sale information is a constant tug to capture everything before it goes away. The overwhelm can also lead to indecision, when a paralyzing amount of options presented. 

The overwhelm and the underwhelm have cancelled each other out where I just feel neutral about everything. I set out to get a bargain and was largely left empty-handed. On the bright side, that saves room for more meaningful purchases filled with intentionality and joy.