Happy Friday everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving filled with loved ones and way too much food. And if you hosted like I did, plenty of leftovers to last you through the weekend. Now not only is today Friday, it is the most American of all holidays: Black Friday. Every year I really do have to ask the same the question: how is this still a thing?
Growing up I do have some pretty early memories of the relevance of Black Friday. My family would bring several news papers to Thanksgiving dinner and everyone would go through and start to pick out what we wanted for Christmas because this would be the best time because those products would be on sale. And as far back as I can remember, this was simply part of Thanksgiving and I know plenty of others who have the same memories. I never actually went shopping then, and my first official time doing Black Friday shopping wasn’t until I was in college. I will admit to doing it wrong compared to other people because I didn’t wait in line before open, I didn’t go crazy, I really didn’t even have a list.
But Black Friday truly was a full American institution that people across the country would partake part in, going back as far as the 1950s. Although, I believe it wasn’t until closer to the 1980s that it truly became more of a national event. And we have seen the pictures and videos on the news, plus seen them recreated in television and cinema. People would camp out days in advance for certain deals (usually electronics), people would push and force their way through the stores, and we have even seen people get damaged during these instances. For those who have never seen these videos, feel free to look up videos of sharks reacting to chum in the water and it is the same concept (but you get to watch sharks). But these days have long gone and as far as I know, people do not get quite as worked up over Black Friday. The true “magic” of Black Friday was disappearing perhaps even as much as twenty years ago, but then Covid Pandemic truly was the final nail in the coffin. Since then, we see Black Friday has truly expanded beyond just Friday. We get Cyber Monday, some stores were opening on Thursday for a few years, and plenty of websites start offering Black Friday sales a week in advance. In store, I couldn’t tell you if it is even worth it anymore because not only do I not go out I haven’t heard of anyone else I know talking about it. If I am being honest, most sales do not truly sound that great anyways and are likely on par with similar discounts offered throughout the year.
Now I have gone through all of this, and for those of you who grew up with these memories are likely nodding your head with everything I am saying because you have seen all of this happen. So we should both be able to agree that Black Friday popularity and revenue would have declined over the years, correct? Wrong, somehow we are both wrong. According to DemandSage, not only has spending over Black Friday continued to increase over the years but they are forecasting $11.7 billion in sales this year1.
I am as surprised as anyone as I would have bet money that the pandemic would seen Black Friday die out but here we are stronger than ever before. So how is this possible? Well I believe that lies with a couple reasons I previously mentioned. It is true we no longer see people camping outside of stores or breaking noses to get the last toy. Plenty of people still go to the stores, but it sounds like they are more looking to take advantages of perhaps slightly above average discounted prices to save money. So I believe it isn’t so much about getting so much money off the new television, it is focused on general Christmas gifts or personal shopping. But the biggest winner would be online shopping. As I mentioned, websites and stores have their discounts up earlier and longer than ever before which means people do not need to go to a brick-and-mortar location if they want to take part in the deals. And I do believe it is that a lot of people are no much focusing on big ticket purchases, but more focused on what are their personal favorite items that go on sale. They might have an Amazon list going all year that they are now watching to see what hits discounts. Or if you are like me, you have some personal favorite websites or brands that you pop in on to see if they have discounts on products that you would normally buy no matter way but can stock up cheaper. With the introduction of online shopping (which reviewing DemandSage, accounts for more than half of 2024’s Black Friday shopping) it means we can find more discounts, access it from anywhere, and be able to pick and choose the stores and products we are interested in. The current economic climate is always a questionable factor as well because if people are worried about money they typically do less shopping. But in this case it is the reverse because they are seeing it as a chance to save money, meaning it is the wise thing to do.
So my Breakdown of why I think Black Friday should have died out might not really offer anything new, but I hope it did point some factors out to those readers who are like me. Black Friday is an interesting phenomenon and it is interesting to evaluate what continues to fuel it each year. And if you like to shop it, then by all means go for it! As I mentioned, rather than hunting for big, fancy deals I was more focused on finding items I had added to my wish list earlier this year. But I have already made purchases on products I would have bought anyways but now I get a discount. For those who want to rail against the capitalist machine, I suggest focusing on local shops! Pop into small businesses in your town or even look up smaller stores in general that offer online shopping so that way you can support them over the big corporations that do not need more money.
I hope you all enjoy those Thanksgiving leftovers this weekend, while it is still the shopping season feel free to drop a comment with your favorite Black Friday shop this year so we can get a chance to share in the deals. Until next week, I’ll see you around the Breakroom (likely with pie).
- Kumar, N. (2025, November 6). 19 Black Friday Sales Statistics (2025) – Forecast & Trends. DemandSage. Retrieved November 25, 2025, from https://www.demandsage.com/black-friday-statistics/ ↩︎
