The RISE and FALL of Black Friday
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- Опубліковано 14 лис 2023
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Black Friday has long been the biggest shopping day of the year. But times are a’changin’, and the things that made it the cultural phenomenon it was (the midnight lines, fist fights, and the cheapest T.V.s anyone’s ever seen) are no more. And things have changed for the worse.
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For further reading, check out the sources for this video here:
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Script: Jaz Papalapoudos
Editor: Kirsten Stanley
Project Manager: Lurana McClure Rodríguez
Host: Levi Hildebrand
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"The script was written for me". Man I thought you were smart! Haha 🧠 My world is crushed
No
@@derek-64so you don't watch either CNN or Fox News than?
A smart move would be to go to wikipedia, then search for black friday et voila! decent factual information.
@@Vernardo2100 2036 next year me
As a former retail employee who did many Black Fridays, I’m happy more workers aren’t having to deal with it.
Snowflake 😂
Yeah bet it wasn't exactly something to look forward to, hey?
@@just_a_turtle_chadit's not being a snowflake it's just that people don't know how to act right 🤡 so why don't you grow up before committing
@@just_a_turtle_chad Stfu you're probably 14
@@just_a_turtle_chadi had a black friday at walmart and a dude swung at me its real out there you got soft hands you wouldn't get it
I also remember when Black Fridays meant something. One day of crazy deals. Now it’s a month of 10% off. Like bruh
Assuming the deals are even real. Misleading marketing, goods downgraded in quality to match the lower price, etc.
So true 😂
@@web4639 Yep, I work at Walmart rn... It was really interesting to see that they suddenly brought in a whole load of last generation models and products that looked the exact same, yet had a different UPC barcode.
😅😅 6:50 6:51 6:51
@@web4639slso true
I thought the peak ridiculousness was when Black Friday started on Thanksgiving afternoon, thus disrupting typical family time togetherness… and then those workers who had to be at work essentially canceling their thanksgiving.
Yeah, in the final years it started on Thanksgiving afternoon. Covid really helped end Black Friday.
Corporate executives never missed a moment with their families...
Yep ruined thanksgiving permanently in my family because of it although no one works retail anymore we just stopped getting together
Yep that’s when the retailers ruined it.
Personally, I never understood the attraction of Black Friday deals. I mean, yes, about the savings and such, but I start Christmas shopping sometime in July, although this year, I started two months later. I buy a little at a time each week after carefully considering if each family member will like something or not. If my instincts are strong and I have no doubts about a particular item, then I get it. If I am conflicted and wishy washy after a week or two, then I don't get it. I don't buy something simply because it is on sale, BUT if the item is something that my family member will like and it is on sale, then I will get it. Thanksgiving is a time for family and friends getting together and sharing a wonderful time when in normal times it is sometimes impossible to get together often. At least, that is how it is for me and not worrying about Black Friday.
Besides that, when family and friends have a gift wish list, I oftentimes find it helpful to get my loved ones things that they actually want from that list, particularly if someone is difficult to buy for.
I worked at a GameStop during Black Friday 2001. We didn't do a sale, we didn't have to - parents were dropping their kids off to get free babysitting and play games instead of giving them quarters for an actual arcade (cheapasses). We'd shut down the video game demo systems since there'd be kids fighting over who got turns to play what (this was back during the "try before you buy" days when GameStop was actually a relevant, decent business) and parents would get so pissy with us - "why aren't you letting my kid play the games? Why can't they stay, I'll just be gone a few minutes, they'll behave..." with us always tapping the sign my manager taped up that said: "We are not a daycare - ALL kids must be accompanied by a responsible adult" to the howls of furious Karens and soccer moms. What a shitshow...
Wow. That’s depressing 😬
They are in control of the media so they won't admit that the boycotts are working😂😂😂
Imagine being that salty that you remember it 22 years later.
@@oo--7714 if you’ve ever worked in retail you always have memories of encounters you’ve had with the public!! You just do, I don’t think it’s saltiness. You’d have to be tranked up to the eyeballs on a psych or nursing ward not to have memories that stick in your mind, especially ones that temporarily affect your whole view of humanity. He or she was probably pretty young when doing this job and you just do remember things from when you were young that stick in your mind, it’s how memory works. Absolutely everyone who has worked with the general public has had similarly depressing memories. For me it was people wanting the news of the Twin Towers turning off so they could carry on placing their bets in the betting shop I worked in, but that was a pretty depressing job.
@@oo--7714id be that salty too man. i shouldnt have to take care of someone elses kids just because they are bad parents
I worked retail for....way too long. And Black Friday was my favorite day to work, purely because if anyone gave me attitude - it was way too busy so you could freely give their bad attitude right back to them and move on. It was the one day out of the year you could get some well deserved retribution with the angry masses.
okay that's definitely a spin on an otherwise miserable day hahaha
As a former waitress I would love to have been able to give 💩 back:)
Lmaoooo this reminds me of Black Fridays at Old Navy and later the Gap. It was the one day everything can just be left a mess and it’s so loud you could pretend you didn’t hear 😅
I can relate to this. When there's a 40 minute line of people behind you, the dynamic is much more that of a cafeteria worker ladling beans onto an inmate's plate.
yeah anything really does go for black friday, no one is willing to wait around to complain. I will say black friday I think 2012 I lost about 3 hours of time that totally vanished, I was at a register but don't recall anything for those 3 hours.
What killed Black Friday is also the sheer abundance of sales.All year round there are plenty of big retailers with good deals, you don’t have to wait until Black Friday anymore.
Coupled with studies that show that Black Friday deals are not that great. Better deals happen in the month of December.
I get emails from retailers that say "Black Friday in July!! 👀🌟" it's absolutely insane! So I think they are they ones that kind of killed it off. Also, they probably can't find enough staff for their store these days to make the old doorbusters happen.
They make new tvs and computers at least every 6 months all the consumer needs to do is wait and it will be on sale already.
USA takes in hundreds of thousands of new immigrants who have not been taught American culture. Black Friday is an accounting term when the clerks switch from red ink to black ink representing a profit. Being in the black means extra money after expenses for retailers. Merchants are preparing for the end of the tax season and start of the new calendar year.
Because most people don‘t have extra money…
My family stopped buying gifs for adults. Makes the holidays so much better. Just get together and eat and not worry about getting people trivial stuff that they don't really need or want.
I'm envious of your family
@@Mr.Peetersenyeah I’m thinking of this. We have 5 little kids between me and my siblings, we don’t really need to get stuff for each other.
We have too. It removes lots of stress and our family just tries to something together
We do that as well. Christmas is for the kids and we have plenty of them in my family.
I just one day told me family "don't get me anything because I'm not getting you anything" for Christmas. I have thoroughly enjoyed Xmas way more ever since then.
80% of the "fun" of shopping was the social aspect; meeting your friends, having a coffee, trying on clothes.
Or seeing something new or that you might've seen only once on TV. Now it's the same stores carrying the same products with nothing feeling new or different.
That’s only true for women. Men want to get in and out in the shortest time possible. Spending all day shopping is pure torture.
@@jono601 not all men.
@@ArtJourneyUK most men find that type of shopping terrifying. it's not my opinion. it's a fact.
@@jono601 ...and again, not all men.
I still remember working at Walmart in 2016 during Black Friday. We weren’t allowed to taken any breaks all day to eat or go to the bathroom. Fights constantly breaking out. I saw a grown man and a grown woman get into a fist fight over a TV. I’m glad things have moved online.
@@ThisGuyBurns this morning
@@ThisGuyBurns 2006 was like yesterday ... 2016 was like this morning. And reading OP I bet people have life long mental scars seeing that s--t. Sometimes that is worse then being in a war setting ... In war you kinda know why is it happening. In a shop you ask yourself wtf where am I and who are these brainless people around me, what is their purpose in life ...
That's illegal lol. You need to take breaks, and they can't make you hold in your piss/shit.
That’s highly illegal
Yo that was me! B**** thought she could take my tv. Don’t worry though, I won.
Our local mall is turning into more of a community hub and bolstering small local businesses instead of classic cookie cutter mall shops and this has really gotten it to turn around for the better the past few years. They're hosting more events, turning store fronts into activity centers like cyber cafes or TCG shops, so you have an incentive to be at the mall for a few hours and actually enjoy it.
I hope to see more malls follow this path; I think there's a lot more desire for places to go and enjoy one's self and malls still have the potential to fill that void.
Thats great
I wish ours would do that, too. Seeing a return to small, local businesses instead of the same chains everywhere would be wonderful. And if malls are dying anyway, that sounds like a wonderful way to revive them and bolster a feeling of community at the same time.
One of our closed malls turned the building to a community college. Good use of the building/space.
Yes! They COULD be these great community spaces but who would have thought that a bunch of emotionless big box stores wouldn't provide that 🤷🏻♂🤦🏻♂
That's a lot closer to what Victor Gruen intended before they became temples to consumerism.
My family was so anti black Friday growing up that if the milk went sour on Friday morning, we were eating toast for breakfast instead of cereal because my momma was NOT going to drive to the store for milk. The footage of people being trampled for a new doodad or gadget put the fear into her, plus she never did like dealing with heavy traffic.
Yes Black Friday just isn’t what it used to be. The decline of the mall/ mall culture is def a big factor here. Stores used to have crazy sales like 40%-50% off everything. I remember as recently as 2015-2016 the malls being packed and people waiting in long lines for Black Friday deals. Can’t believe how much things have changed in less than a decade
Nope it's all online sales now
The term "Black Friday" originated in the 1960s and was used to describe the day after Thanksgiving when retailers experienced a surge in sales, moving from being "in the red" to turning a profit or being "in the black." It marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season in the United States.
Correct! Most retailers operate in a deficit until the holiday season.
100% correct!
Came here to say this. Thanks!
Like ACAB but what??
I remember it getting out of hand once big sales started happening at places like Walmart and crowds crushing people but that was a result of companies trying to exploit what was already the "biggest shopping day" of the year. I almost choked on my tea
Yes this is the history I heard and I was going to make pretty much this post. That the retailers started calling it this because it was when they moved a lot of inventory and the term was spread by trade publications and conventions. I mean I can not definitively say what the actual history is but which seems more likely? That cops, a small and mostly insular group (who would be using the name to complain about the public and the amount of work they had to do no less), in one city, came up with the name the whole country uses or that it was spread intentionally by trade associations who then disseminated it to their staff and customers across the country?
Yep! This video is a bit incorrect on the term. While I don’t doubt the “Philadelphia angle”, the out-of-deficit-into-profit definition I recall from my retail background.
I remember working at Best Buy on Black Fridays in college. It was the best time of my life in 2000. We had a buffet of food in the back for all of the people working we hung out and had a great time all day long and when the shift was over we broke out the alcohol and had a huge party in the store while we cleaned up. I loved it. Those 12-16 hour shifts flew by! That was the time before the fights, and all the crazy stuff.
It sounds like you were treated well and had a lot of fun! That’s an awesome memory!!!
Black Friday in 2000 was a lot different than it is now. These days it feels like a burden. Then it felt like a treat. I’m glad you were treated like an actual human
You worked at the North Atherton Street location, I'll bet.
I work for a Dutch outdoor retailer and we stopped having black Friday deals. Instead we introduced for future fridays. This year we will repair your existing clothes for 50% off. You can also come in and get your walking shoes cleaned for free. Although we dont have any deals, we do get a lot of traffic into the stores, get to educate the consumer and also give a lot of clothing a second life.
Black Friday is an accounting term when the clerks switch from red ink to black ink representing a profit. Being in the black means extra money after expenses for retailers. Merchants are preparing for the end of the tax season and start of the new calendar year. It's American culture and our financial and economical system. Immigrants have not learned this.
@@void9837 The Netherlands is also a country that participates in Black Friday. Other countries include Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Poland, Italy, Greece, New Zealand, India, Norway, Sweden, France, Spain, Iran, Israel, Brazil, and Mexico. Your comment was rude and unnecessary.
Black Fridays started in the USA 1951. Black Fridays in the Netherlands started in 2015. I am explaining the meaning and history where it came from. @@cass4701
What do you mean "rude and unnecessary"? It was a useful explanation of Black Friday.@@cass4701
@@void9837 Maybe the immigrants just do it better.
Here in Brazil, which is one of the countries where the Black Friday was "imported", we actually call it "Black Fraude", a wordplay that translates to "Black Fraud".
We do that because here we're paying for half of the double. Retailers slowly increase the prices on the months prior to the day (as clearly showed by price monitoring sites), enabling them to give a "huge discount" that is just the regular price.
Black Friday is an accounting term when the clerks switch from red ink to black ink representing a profit. Being in the black means extra money after expenses for retailers. Merchants are preparing for the end of the tax season and start of the new calendar year. Each generation needs to be taught American culture correctly or they will not understand.
I have never in my 60 + years shopped on Black Friday. I can hardly think of anything more torturous than being out after thanksgiving with hoards of shoppers.
I knew people who would form a 'posse' for Black Friday, that's a no for me 😂 they doin too much
Nor I, and I turn 60 soon.
Exactly
Not surprised… the time where it became most popular was during Gen X 90s and early 2000s. Now it’s mostly online so waiting in long lines aren’t needed
Dad??🤣🤣
I got married on Black Friday. My husband says that our anniversary is always the day after Thanksgiving (instead of the date). It means that we always have a 4 day weekend for our anniversary.
Did he get you at a bargain? haha
@@Travis12861 A wedding (should) happen only once in their life and its something to be celebrated. If a family member groans about "having" to attend their wedding because they have to give up watching tv and sitting around for ONE day/weekend, that's pretty messed up. You sound like you would be salty about any family event that doesn't revolve around you. You must be real encouraging. Good job Travis. Good job.
also, im sure you would groan if it was during a work day "ugh making us use up PTO for their wedding."
You realize that the date changes every year while your anniversary doesn’t?
Cute. Thanks for sharing.
@@Travis12861
I mean Thanksgiving for many people is already a date for family gatherings and not just immediate families too.
If they have their wedding around thanksgiving they can just combine them into one family event.
All thanksgiving is just alot of food, its actually pretty genius.
For anyone curious, "Starcourt Mall" was actually my hometown haunt, the Gwinnett Place Mall. Indeed, it did close forever in 2020 due to crime, low attendance, and pandemic; and, like many shuttered malls across the country, is (slowly) being converted to a campus-style village with housing, shops, community center, and central greenway that the area desperately needs.
Your quick comment about monthly payments for lower ticket items reminded me of my early trips to Brazil in the late 1980s. I married a Brazilian and we would visit her family in Brazil about every 18 months. Each visit would last for about a month and we would stay with her family so I really didn’t visit the country as a tourist, but lived more like a Brazilian. Brazil is a relatively poor country and one of the first things I noticed when we would go shopping was that nearly everything could be purchased via installments or lay-a-way plans. After visiting several other poorer nations I made a mental rule that one of the hallmarks of a poorer economy was the availability of such installment plans. After seeing this in the US I realized that our economy has crossed a line and that it was moving down the development chain. Installment plans are a feature of economies where consumers do not have cash or standard credit. I am also beginning to see this in Europe as well, something fundamental has changed and not for the better. Oh, by the way, we’re still married.
This is caused by inflation. Not that people don't have enough cash, but that everything is too expensive compared to the salaries "non-increase". Also, since those countries have been getting many immigrants, who are used to instalment payment (and don't usually get credit as you in US know), if there's no instalments payments, they don't consume. Saying this as a Brazilian person.
@@Alehzinhahimmigrants are used to install payments because they are poor. Keep going around in circles to avoid acknowledging our declining economy and the inflation you mentioned in the beginning.
installment plans were common in the US until the 1980s influx of low low interest rate credit cards, now the cards charge like 10, 15 and 25% who can afford to use them? And if you are in a pinch and forced to, how could you ever pay it off? So we're back to installment payments. There ought to be usury laws passed, keep the upper limit of credit card interest rate at 5% for risky people and 1% for low risk users, that would encourage people to use their cards and get money back into the economy
I'm thankful that there is no crowd-rush on sales at the grocery store... (yet?) Those prices are getting insane. I might even finance some avocados next visit.
That's when the dystopia will be in full effect
@@FutureProofTV Aren't most people already doing it though? With how the US system encourages people to use credit cards and their credit system kinda forces people to use those credit cards regularly, peopel are literally financing their avocados
Don't give them ideas!
@@IanDresarie Having credit and using credit is ok, just for the simple fact that you can’t buy a house nowadays without credit, so you do need to show some sort of a track record to be trusted with more credit in the form of a home loan.
It’s financial education that’s lacking and by that I mean , keeping an eye on/tracking money in, money out, saving for emergencies and putting some away on a rainy day. IMHO This needs to be taught as in mandatory training before anyone is allowed to sign up for a credit card.
Especially for kids, I got my first credit card as a first year university student in the 90s, no proof of assets or ability to repay was necessary.
By sheer luck, I was responsible with it but not everybody can be.
I see my son today (he’s young) and how unaware of money he is because he’s hardly had to use actual cash, all transactions for school lunches, snacks, treats are made on his smart watch in the form of prepaid credit.
Personally, I am teaching him to balance his books and financial responsibility, I feel schools have a responsibility to teach this as well. This is literally survival skills for the next generation.
I work in a grocery store. Asshole clients are around the closing time when no managers are around and there are only teenagers on floor who don't know how (or afraid of) to stand up for themselves.
We have to do rainchecks on flyer items when there are none. As supervisers on day shifts and nigth shifts, clients really want their sales and at nigth, they really get angry because they want more than the limits.
I always assumed it was called BLACK Friday because it put the retailers in the black.
That's what I thought...
Thats how I heard about it
This was what I'd heard as well. But I think that would only really apply to old toy retailers like Toys R Us.
That is correct
That's what I was told when I was a kid
As a US Postal carrier I love that online shopping makes me tons of overtime this time of year but I hate how bad it can get (physically) at times. I'd like to see a more in-depth video on why people with very capable vehicles NEED to buy their groceries in the mail! Packs of Fiji water and 40+ pound bags of pet food!
Not sure how common this is around the country but the grocery stores by me started letting people do drive-up grocery pickups during the pandemic quarantine and ended up keeping them afterward, which I think has done a lot to lessen grocery delivery services. People put the order in online at home, then drive to the store to pick it up later. Store employees shop the order and bring it out to the car - so the person ordering doesn't have to go inside the store, but carriers and delivery drivers don't have to bring it to the house either. That might at least alleviate the number of dog food bags you have to deliver lol
And I swear, some people just hoard cases of water. My grandma is like that too! She's not mobile so my mom and I do some grocery shopping for her, and she'll literally ask for 4 cases at a time while she still has some at home. Thanks, I really wanted to lug MORE of these inside...
Working professionals and elderly can’t shop all the time boo
Obviously people order online because it's convenient. Overall it's also better for the environment as one car delivering everyone's stuff makes less emissions than everyone in their own car driving to the store.
You getting physically overworked is an issue for your employer not the customer imo
For all the negatives of Black Friday, the sense of community you would get, waiting in massive lines with your family and friends, meeting new people in lines, seeing old friends from school, it can’t be replaced. We’d start shopping at 9pm on Thanksgiving, meet loads of friends to eat breakfast at 2am, go back out for a bit, then go home. Then we’d go out for a bit the next day. I have so many memories waiting in brutally long lines with my dad, and now that he’s gone, I just want to wait in a long line with him again.
I personally never saw a fight. That’s terrible stuff like that happened, but I miss the community aspect of Black Friday.
Honestly it's a rare holiday (at least in the US) that encourages us to go be in the presence of strangers at all. Most of them are celebrated holing up in the house - we could just as easily hang out with family in a more public space, but so many holidays have traditions that involve staying home (not that people haven't recently started doing new things, like seeing movies on Thanksgiving, but obvs that's not the case for how the vast majority of people celebrate lol). Maybe 4th of July for fireworks, or a local Community Day, or Times Square in New York (though not for most people watching at home) are usually celebrated around strangers, but most aren't. It's kind of nice to have a reason to find shared community with a bunch of people you don't know when you're all out for the same "thing," and it's a nice feeling even though that "thing" is consumerism incarnate
I think I do relate in the same way, meeting friends from school really was cool like hey you're also suffering just to get some great deals! I think humans bond the best when they suffer by waiting in long lines out in the cold. Since so many people were standing in line, people would perform sometimes just to give us something to do since it was an error before everybody had smart phones.
My town didn’t offer bus service on Christmas morning, thanksgiving or Easter but they ran busses starting at midnight on Black Friday. It’s insane how important it is to people.
American culture is supposed to be fun but it has not been taught to our immigrants correctly. Mom and Grandma are suppose to shop together, and Dad with Grandpa or they take turns watching the kids, so the gifts will be a surprise on Christmas morning. Black Friday is an accounting term when the clerks switch from red ink to black ink representing a profit. Being in the black means extra money after expenses for retailers. Merchants are preparing for the end of the tax season and start of the new calendar year.
I forget which year it was, but my personal wake-up call with Black Friday was when I received a Best Buy email earlier in the year about "Black Friday in July". It was obviously an echo of the whole "Christmas in July" thing, but it was in that moment when I realized that "Black Friday" had lost all meaning.
In Australia they do try to promote a 'Christmas in July' just to get sales. Like you have disingenuous sales all year around..
Because the items are manufactured in China and shipped from there. You buy something then it takes months even half a year for that to arrive into USA. I seen so many crazy things like you order a new XBOX then it comes to you 3 years later when the model is basically heavily outdated and you been drained for money. And if you want to sell it to gain some money back you still lose major chunk of it plus you will be happy if anyone even wants to buy the damn thing by then ...
But yeah even in this video he mentioned China how the problem comes from there. "this comes from China" LETS STOP THE BLAME GAME AND FACE REALITY !!!
China didn't made you nor made your lifestyles, China didn't made Black Friday OR ANYTHING.
China is only a small chain in your incompetent system.
China doesn't have "huge numbers of online shoppers" as stated in the video, rather reality is, huge numbers of sellers and the actual shoppers are from USA and wealthy parts of European Union, or rather say wealthy parts of Germany and few places in France since these are the only two countries in Europe who are influenced or rather say poisoned and controlled by USA the most so as consumerism.
China mass produce things solely because USA, even tho USA have the most homeless and useless number of people equally have the most number of people who are chronic hoarders and shopaholics (among other bad things).
This is the same reason why EU and USA forces upon other countries they invade their regulations and laws against home growth, food growth, owning even a pet let alone live stock or anything that can produce food, clothing, furniture etc. Generally bruteforcing onto normal folks their consumerism and other brainless nonsense.
This is the same reason why I will in few years escape and live in the woods because I am sick of these parasites knocking on my door day by day telling me how to live my life and draining my money with their delusions ... "I broke the law" the law that doesn't even apply to me yet here we are in a battle and even if I win I STILL HAVE TO PAY IMAGINARY FEES !!!
It's not enough that NATO killed my entire family in multiple wars now these EU and USA parasitic offices are killing me and the remaining of the normal folks and thanks to that I wont have offspring too.
So I ask if you are so smart that you know how one should live and want consumers in the progress then why are you actually massively killing them and yourself too in the same process ?! Oh I know why, because you are a self-destructive parasite that lacks basic common sense and basic logic for a start ...
Lets not go into other evil things you do, since the list is huge as 100+ bibles ...
So congratulations, you (you know who you are and what you did) killed my family, you killed me and good luck with killing yourself too.
I just pray that God or who ever stops you before you stop my existence. But if I need to perish then be it I know you will eventually too so there is that.
@@meikahidenoriAustralia does Christmas in July cause it's the coldest part of the year. It's the novelty of being able to do cold weather Christmas things. Ugly Christmas jumpers are fun but not so much in 32°c
@@yootxI can see that.
One thing which isn't always mentioned about Black Friday is its level of classism.
Notice the stores which opened in the middle of the night are middle to lower caliber companies.
High end companies always kept regular hours and rarely promoted big sales. Only those stores who market to people who don't have the money to spend were participating.
I truly feel there were those at the corporate level who laughed from their ivory towers, enjoying watching the "minions" rush to buy something.
Compare South Coast Plaza vs Irvine Spectrum in Orange County
Yup
As an introvert who hates large crowds, I'm glad it's all online and spread out.
Here in New Zealand everything (retail and businesses in general) in December is crazy up until Xmas eve. Then Xmas comes and goes and everyone leaves town and goes on holiday so that after Xmas, particularly between Xmas and New Year it used to be soooo quiet and a real breeze to go shopping. But in recent years people have woken up to the fact that it is quiet in the city and virtually a holiday atmosphere so more people are staying around so there isn't the deserted city anymore. I kind of miss that.
I haven't shopped on a black friday since the late 90s. I can't handle the crowds, the messy merchandising, the mean people, the traffic.... I noped out of that. I think I've accidentally shopped on a cyber monday on amazon, but I was just getting my usual crap. Unfortunately, I have had to work on black fridays at Gordman's and it was the most disgusting thing I have ever had to participate in; a man literally punched a woman in the face and knocked her out! I have no desire to shop in person in a brick and mortar store anymore.
"noped out of that" 😂
I am totally going to start saying that now.
Someone: "Wanna go Christmas shopping?"
Me: "No thank you. I nope out of crowds."
**nope nope nope**
Brick and mortar can be civilised in some places, I promise! I especially like book shops as I can flick through the pages.
You only see that madness on Black Friday, not through the rest of the year.
Only rhing worse rhan a store is a shopping mall
@@TheStyleStumblerautism dors dat 4 me
Black Friday might be one of the most consumerist versions of community, but all the same its a bit sad that it, along with so SO many things that brought people together in person, has completely fallen off :/
people foaming at the mouth and punching each other over flatscreens isn't community.
@@welfare_baybee what I'm referring to isn't that. People in stores our area weren't brawling or anything, it was more civil. I was more talking about camping outside talking with random strangers and a time of year where practically everyone was actually outside for a while instead of holed up at home, and NOT the small percentage of those places that got completely out of hand.
No verse then halloween or even X-mas
People camped out in front of stores at 2am waiting for the stores to open. It was a time.
@@pippers8349your experience is not normative
I would love to see a video about what happens to society as we lose more physical shopping places and shop mostly online. I understand what that would look like physically, but I wonder what that does to us psychologically? For example, I miss going to local music stores where I would get introduced to different genres and make friends. It's not the same trying to do that online with faceless masses of people.
I think this adds to the overall issue of loneliness and isolation that is growing in our society.
With rising cost of living and stagnant wages, I’m not surprised less people are excited for “Black Friday”. 🤨😒
At the end of the day, you’re still buying an OVERPRICED item. There is no such thing as “good deals”. Welcome to capitalism
Well, here you are on UA-cam. You have us.😀😃🙂😊
I worked for Walmart for 21 years . Every Black Friday the associates would laugh at all the people that would line up or fight to be the first to get in and get what they thought was a deal. Sorry folks there are no deals. It’s all profit, even the “marked down stuff”.
Tbf there were definitely bait items that the store takes a loss on in order to attract customers to everything else that is still profitable
@nothanks6784 the only thing at Walmart that is a loss are clearance items. My job was to change item placement twice a year( modular team) and mark discontinued items down. I did this in many stores in my region (3 states).
We were just talking about how “Black Friday” was gone and how it’s a good thing. I do not miss the door busters or the FOMO. Life seems much more rational, shopping from home with less pressure and no crowds.
i was a black friday shopaholic , but after i researched , i found that U get the same deals if u shop Amazon at non peak hours like Night time
I’ve noticed that some retailers will also raise their prices before Black Friday so that when they mark them down, the “deal” isn’t that much lower than the regular price but they can market it as 30% off.
I also learned that tech made specifically for Black Friday deals usually has lower end components. For example a smart TV may have a slower processor than its non Black Friday counterpart.
Never understood the appeal of Black Friday. Line up for hours just to get a small discount on shitty quality products that you don't really need? No thanks.
For folks shopping online during sales, beware of that false sales. Some places like Amazon just hike the prices up and cut it down to the original price making you think it's on sale when really you're just buying it for the original price lol.
And behind the scenes for online shopping isn't so great either. Warehouse workers and delivery drivers now take on the burden of doing the legwork while buyers sit at home and get upset on why their packages don't arrive the next day.
I've worked through a few black fridays and having to go in on thanksgiving to prepare for the madness used to be the worst, I'm glad large retail stores are closed on thanksgiving again.
A few years ago I went to my childhood mall on Black Friday with my brother and toddler nephew. No parking problems. In the time it took my nephew to enjoy one of those coin powered horsey rides, I went into a shop and got a pair of shoes. I'm glad the Black Friday madness is largely gone.
I worked black Friday at radio shack back in the day. Yes i made bank during my 16 hour day but it was grueling dealing with all the rude, entitled customers.
Work for the Shack back in the early 90's thru the early 2000's in East Texas all company owned stores. What a time it was and commissioned sales on black friday were amazing!
That's no lie!
One of the issues with the Black Friday sales was sometimes those deals weren't the deals you thought they were. It wasn't uncommon for that Black Friday TVs to be a downgraded version of a more expensive model that was only made to sell that day. They would have slower processors, fewer features, and even fewer HDMI ports. If it filled your needs that's great, but for some it was better to pass on the "deal" and get the regular model.
I've worked in retail management for ten years now and I couldn't be happier with what black friday has morphed into. The pandemic really helped change things because now most stores are CLOSED ON THANKSGIVING. Stores spread out their sales so its not one WILDDD weekend we workers DREAD.
As a retail employee who was not allowed to have Black Friday off under any circumstances before, I'm glad Black Friday is dying. I actually got the day off this year 😂
I'm also getting black friday off this week, and yes it would be unheard of a couple years ago.
Same with my boyfriend.
A family member in a letter to my grandmother asked for pillow cases one Christmas during the depression. Nowadays anyone wants anything they buy for themselves on Amazon. I love the holidays but the mass consumerism has run its course.
The four Thanksgivings prior to the pandemic I had to work until midnight, because the company that I work for had Black Friday on Thanksgiving. The year of the pandemic the pandemic caused a positive change for us associates. Ever since then, the company spreads it's event deals through the month of November. Now I get to spend Thanksgiving with my family. I've worked for my company for 8 years now. I've witnessed the rise and fall off Black Friday "The Blitz". I was hired as seasonal help for said event and I stayed on after. A lot has changed and a lot more changes yet to come.
I went Black Friday shopping one single time, I went to Circuit City (dates the story justifiably) and the line was absurd. I wanted a laptop or whatever and didn't get it. I felt like an idiot, never did it again.
New immigrants over the last 30 years, have not been taught American culture correctly. Black Friday is an accounting term when the clerks switch from red ink to black ink representing a profit. Being in the black means extra money after expenses for retailers. Merchants are preparing for the end of the tax season and start of the new calendar year.
I'm glad you learned from your experience.
I'm shocked you didn’t mention the biggest downfall to black Friday which is that those discounts aren't even discounts now. Companies just mark up the price to then mark it down as a "sale". While I get certain companies have used that greedy strategy for years, now majority of companies do it. And I know for a fact that you used to genuinely get amazing deals on black Friday because I gotten them before. Not so much nowadays
I was always told it’s called Black Friday because it’s a time for retailers to balance their books… Taking them from the RED into the BLACK 😭
as someone that worked many a retail jobs in high school and undergrad i’m glad it isn’t as wild as it once was.
as an adult with 4 dogs i’m glad i can stock up on dog food, supplements, toys, etc- stuff we actually consume and need.
i feel like deals are good if you’re purchasing things you NEED and will use, not just impulse purchases.
As someone who worked in retail slightly before the Black Friday heyday, it was still supposed to be the biggest shopping day of the year. But it paled in comparison to the week before Christmas, especially Christmas Eve. That was when I was very glad we had to park offsite from Black Friday to the second week of January and take a shuttle to the mall. It was insane and people would be parked on the road outside the mall, on the grassy medians that surrounded the parking lot, etc. There would be major traffic jams around that mall.
I love shopping but have never been tempted to go shopping on Black Friday.
I went Black Friday shopping last year and there was absolutely no deals. The only one was bath and body works and it was like buy 6 get 3 free but I DONT WANT 9.
The influencer livestream phenomenon is VERY intriguing to me; it reminds me of the old days when department stores would have cooking demonstrations to show off their cookware in front of a live audience. I think that's the way forward with marketing- engaging people on that personal and practical level.
Meeting people where they are as society evolves (or devolves) usually presents a clear path to success. It will be interesting to see where it all goes - how it changes and how it changes us.
Yeah or like the shopping channel... trends do be repeating themselves haha
yet not one goddamn influencer-backed product is of a good quality
I worked at a big box retailer between '05-'09 and thrived in the Black Friday chaos that sometimes ensued but also remeber the articles indicating that it sometimes got out of hand. As for online shopping, a habit I'm actively trying to break, These hyped up sales events make it very easy to get caught up in the consumerism trap. In the past I've had a plan to buy one sweatsuit and by Cyber Monday, I'd have 5+ parcels in the mail.
I have a feeling that's a habit that a lot of us are trying to break (me included). The slow spread of one day of large savings to a whole month of diluted savings makes it harder in some ways (constant opportunities to save money on things I was planning on buying anyway) and easier in others (a 10% savings doesn't really seem like savings nowadays).
I'm surprised you didn't mention how black friday deals are not on the products you can buy during the rest of the year. They are on special black friday versions that are built so much cheaper, the stores actually make more money.
I've grown up without an internet connection, so I can relate to the problem of not having social gathering places, but it keeps me wondering if it really is that big of a loss for the next generation who never "had to" go places to meet people, or if it is just us "old folk" missing something we had out of nostalgia.
I absolutely hate online shopping due to the fact that most of the time you have to wait as long as a week to get whatever it is that you ordered. Nothing else will ever top the feeling of getting in your car to go buy a new computer, a new phone, a new camera, a new whatever, get to the store, look at it, grab it, pay for it, go home with it right there. Rather than waiting at home for an entire week, to only find out that whatever you ordered wasn't exactly what you wanted. Online shopping is and will always be my last resort, whenever I can't find whatever I wanna buy, then I'll order it online.
Upvoted because of clown pepe
At some point i forgot that black friday is an american thing and not a whole world thing. I was waiting for a (foreign) brand to go on sale on thanksgiving and they never came 😂 that’s when i was reminded lmaoo
😂😂
Hear me out: Black Friday shopping/thanksgiving time is one of my most fondest memories as a kid and I was hoping I could recreate that 90s & 2000s feel with my future kids once I got older. I never ran into any unpleasant encounters during BF & I didn’t know about the violent encounters until I got older and it literally makes me sick…Idk if it’s a mixture of the lower cost of living that ppl could actually afford to go out, shop & buy big purchases at the end of the year, the abundance of family time & love in the air, or the never-ending supply of leftovers -but it feels so nostalgic. Now it just feels like a slap in the face seeing all the “sale” signs when ppl can even afford to put food on their table all while working multiple jobs…
As someone who has worked retail for almost 10 years I am glad to say that I'm noticing fewer and fewer shoppers in stores now versus almost 10 years ago. I am 100% behind these extended Black Friday sales in-store and people staying home to get their deals so I don't have to deal with their bs.
Here in Switzerland there are no crazy deals available, so I've never bought something on black Friday, singles day, cyber Monday or whatever...
There were never crazy deals here in the US either. The "deals" were always lower quality junk items means exactly for the sales. You were getting a $200 50" TV because it was a piece of cheap crap.
You're not missing out...
I've worked at Target since 2018, And the Black Friday we knew then if totally different now. It's a shame because right after Halloween I walked into work to see "Black Friday Deals" posted everywhere.... like that stretch during thanksgiving/Black Friday had me looking forward to something every year
its only going to get worse, everywhere, as blacks get more violent
The week after Christmas is the best time to buy next year's gifts!
Definitely would be interested in hearing about the future of malls. I still remember when it was the cool place to hang out. I’m guessing that malls not wanting teens being there has contributed to them not being so popular now.
This is my first time hearing Black Friday described as a holiday, and maybe it’s because we never bought into the crazy stuff (my mom would make a list of a few stores that had good deals and hit them up in the morning, but she and we would never do anything crazy like camp out or wait in line at 3 AM, etc) so I never really considered it as more than just sales mayhem but you are exactly right. This HAS become a holiday in our culture and that is just unbelievably sad. Not only has it become a monument to rampant consumerism, but it has also cut into Thanksgiving weekend which should be focused on being thankful for what you have, spending time with family, and practicing charity. Instead all we have is consumerist and corporate greed and it’s disgusting, but that doesn’t mean I and others won’t still get on top of Black Friday deals (though in a much more moderated fashion). I don’t really know the immediate solution to this aside from maybe planning some sort of friends or family gathering or outing on Black Friday to counteract the madness and keep the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday.
I am nowhere near a store on that day. I spend my time with family and friends at a nice dinner at home, the way it was meant to be.
Black Friday was never a holiday
I will never understand the western mentality. Can't afford bills and rent but must buy expensive garbage that makes you happy maybe for 5 minutes ... then you are back to your struggles and having no life ...
On top of a incompetent system in a country you have people who contribute to that mess and no wonder why you have billions of homeless and why is USA the biggest parasite of this planet and human kind's biggest scum.
If anything I am surprised you still exist at all.
@@lostboy8084 not in the official sense, but it has become one nonetheless in the same way that we have turned our technology into idols. It fits all the qualifications of a holiday.
As of approaching this year's black friday at a store that I work in, it is really sad to see how much stress and difficulties for employees it gives and how much is it not worth it financially at the end.
The few times I went out for Black Friday shopping was actually not to shop, but to hang out with the friends and family who wanted to go. For my own shopping, I do prefer online because it's less overwhelming and feel less pressured to buy something immediately (knowing that it will be on-sale for a few days, available in multiple stores/websites, etc.).
I worked retail for 15 years and black friday was always brutal even though it was a craft store and people didn't tend to fight over stuff. But it was also 15 years of never being able to travel anywhere for Thanksgiving since we ALL had to be at work the next day (and thank goodness our company resisted the trend of opening Thanksgiving evening!) I guess at least we didn't get stuck in holiday traffic or deal with crowded airports, though?
I 'retired' from that job in late 2015 and I still don't leave my house on black friday.
I think what many are realizing (in light of high consumer credit debt and inflation) is that a lot of what people buy at the holiday season is just fluff/crap that after the new year, they likely won’t use too much (computers and phones being an exception)- people are likely realizing how little they actually need to live well, so they tend to buy less (and yes, are more concerned about paying bills and keeping food on the table). Some will continue to spend recklessly, but over time, that trend may reverse.
Missed the part about physical stores needing to dump inventory pre-christmas in a time when just in time shipping and inventory systems didn't exist. Those almost-free deals were a loss leader to clear out the store. You can bet if there is a physical store with PS5s for $200 today there would still be people lining up to fight over them. Modern shipping and inventories made this more of a regular sale than a necessity.
I hate it so much. It's not even a good deal most of the time. So many companies mark up their MSRP and then offer 20 or 30% off, effectively making the "sale price" the normal price. And it's not the only sale during the year. I'm always getting an email with some "super secret special members only limited time offer discount" for everything from Veteran's Day, to Groundhog Day, to Black Friday, Back to School... the list goes on.
i live in portugal, we don't even have thanksgiving. they started advertising black friday at the end of october, with a special weekend for early black friday in certain stores.
the funniest part is them getting called out for their scams. they're caught multiple times increasing the original price to then use the old price as the black friday price. but unless you've been tracking the product in hopes to buy it for when it goes on sale, you'd never know and assume you're getting a good deal. when in fact you're paying the same you would've paid before
I’m nearly at the end of my twenties starting my first retail job soon and scheduled to work Black Friday with only 2 days of in store experience before hand. I told my friend I don’t think it’ll get that crazy like before cause of online shopping and how the pandemic changed things so just hopping all goes smooth.
My very first job, on my first day, was black friday at Macys 12 years ago...so it was absolutely insane. Looked like a shoe and purse bomb went off. The plus side to that being the very first day: it made the whole rest of the year I worked there a total breeze! haha can't be any more difficult than a black friday! I agree with you though: I don't think it will be as crazy for you considering so much has moved online.
Black Friday started very organically. Many people were off work the Friday after Thanksgiving and were a few weeks away from Christmas. It was just a natural time to get out and do some shopping. The name and retailer hype came later, which ultimately ruined it.
I wonder if there is a name for the day before Thanksgiving, which is a huge day for bars. It at least it was when I went to bars.
I just discovered this channel. I think I have a lot to binge watch. So many topics I've wanted to see people cover (and more I didn't know I wanted to see get covered) that NEED to be addressed.
I absolutely hate online shopping and refuse to do it. It disgusts me that so much of actual retail is dying.
As much as i dislike ads, i love that youre getting supported. I think you mentioned before how hard it is when your channel is kinda known for callin out businesses lol
I work retail I've worked several black Fridays most of them it felt like The Walking Dead literally scary as hell! Yes they do storm into the store like exactly like that yes plow you down mow you down with their shopping carts. It was like Royal Rumble with the ladder match I will fight you for this product. Customers literally have their hands on top of the pallet when the sale began oh my God they would tear the product apart. They would literally throw everything into their shopping cart like it was a Marathon giveaway until they got up to the registers and then said I don't want this I don't want this! The funny thing is they would have five items for 100 custom that was sad. Black Friday is not the Pinnacle of its peak anymore since there's online shopping!
As somebody who has worked in ecommerce aka online retail for nearly 20 years, I thought this video was a great little summary of some of the industry's trends. Thanks!
THANK YOU so much for this video - articulating the buy now pay later model so simply really clicked things into place for me.
Nice video! Well put together! Never been a fan of Black Friday. I would always tell people when they asked if I wanted to go "No thank you. I'd rather not be trampled to death!"
I will admit I went once when I was 15 with my dad for a new desktop. We got there at 4am and the line outside the building was so long, we stood in it for a while but gave up because they sold out before we even got in the door. Then I heard on the news someone in my town got shot over a Playstation so I decided I'd never go again. My life was not worth it.
When they changed the name from “Day After Thanksgiving” to “Black Friday”, things started going downhill on that day.
Good point the “after Thanksgiving sales” ads are a thing of the past
5:33 I love how even your ads feel informative and relevant
I remember working retail for Black Friday and absolutely hated it. What a cluster f*ck of crap to deal with. I use to dread Thanksgiving because of it.
Walmart's employee discount usually doesn't cover groceries but they're going to allow you to use it on groceries for Black Friday. I seriously could not write a more on the nose evil corporation.
Also, while the stores are closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas, those days are unpaid.
I kind of used to like black friday in the 00s, was kind of fun to go out at 3-4am to snag actual deals for yourself or get some Christmas shopping done. When retailers all started to leapfrog each other to open first - eventually pushing back into Thanksgiving should have been the end of it. Then actual deals started getting replaced with 'black friday' versions of things, especially in the electronics space and they were no longer worth purchasing.
But as much as I liked it, Im glad its effectively dead, put way too much pressure on retail workers.
I was born and raised in Philly and I had no idea Black Friday started there. I just always remember it being a thing. After that day there were no more sales until after Christmas.
For several decades now the hubby and I have refused to enter any store (other than groceries NOT WALMART) from mid Nov through mid Jan. We just don't do the whole holiday crowd thing and since we don't really do Christmas outside a family supper it isn't a big deal.
If you want to see real panic shopping, go to the stores on Christmas Eve
Every Black Friday is the one time I can actually buy many 4K Blu-Rays of movies I’ve wanted to have in my collection throughout the year and previous years since they can go as low as $6 a movie
It is fine to get advantage of those deals. What is not ok is going into fist fights for it. Just saying.
i never said i got into fist fights for it lol if someone took the last avaible movie im not going to fight them for it. first come first serve i can always get it next year or used@@vaderladyl
I heard the phrase Grey Friday the other day. That's the sale that comes before Black Friday that extends the sale. Pretty much, after Halloween it's one long sale until the end of January.
canada is so bad too; in barrie there are nearly abandoned malls with virtually no stores and the one busy mall left still has a multitude of empty storefronts
I would love a video on Dead Malls! I'd also love to hear your take on the Metaverse if you have any thoughts to share on if that is our "future" for people to make connections.
I find Black Friday to be really offensive and I'm glad places are spacing it out. When it was exclusively right after Thanksgiving, and especially starting on Thanksgiving night, it just... ugh, it's always bothered me so much. We were just celebrating how grateful we are for what we have, and so many people throw that all away just to make sure they get a good deal on stuff they probably don't have and certainly don't need in most cases. It makes Thanksgiving feel very performative for people and more of an obligation than a true demonstration and celebration of their gratitude.
Exactly. It is celebrating gratitude, but then turned into a ode to consumerism and materialism. No, thanks.
Yes 👏🏽! I agree
I didn't even realize there was a black friday in 2023. It seems like the prices were the same as ever. If in fact, for the past ten years i've noticed that all they really do is Set the default prices for everything much higher than normal so that the discounted price, which is actually the normal price, is cheap...
I resisted my workplace's early black friday sale for veterans day weekend. And there is still stuff (a couple things) that i can wait for on actual black Friday to get the red tag and employee discount on. 😊 but I'm not gonna freak out if i don't get them because i have plenty of great stuff already too.
Personally I am very happy to do my shopping online nowadays 😅 It’s always such a hassle to go into the store, especially in winter. I have super many layers of clothes on due to it being winter and as soon as I go into a shop I am sweating. Then I have to carry all kinds of bags and stuff and drag everything with me (while already sweating in my winter clothes) to all the other shops 😑 I prefer sitting on my sofa, very comfy with a cup of tea and then calmly scrolling the online shops and then have everything delivered to my door 😌 Also, peace since there are no crowds! 😂
Exactly! Not everyone wants to go out and “meet people “ 🫤🙄
I don't think I've ever had spare income to take part in Black Friday deals. Shit, I finally make six figures and I still don't.
I feel you!
I’m so happy that many stores (including mine) now start Black Friday deals a week or two early. It helps us save sales. Last year people would come in look around and say they’ll come back for the sale. Any stores that look at conversion knows how annoying that can be