It’s not a “Black Friday Sale” if it’s still 6 p.m. on Thursday
You’re probably thinking right now, “Wait a minute, this isn’t a Christmas column, but it’s in the Christmas column section.” And you’d be right.
But since Black Friday comes after Thanksgiving and therefore is part of the Christmas season, I’m deeming it fair game for the Christmas column umbrella.
Before I get into it, I’m not against Black Friday on the whole. Black Friday is a massively important day to businesses across the country, and at this point it’s a cultural staple of the holiday season.
We’ve all seen the commercials and advertisements. Retailers of all types advertising their fire sales of goods storewide in the annual start of holiday shopping. This is all well and good except for one major issue: stores start “Black Friday” on Thanksgiving Day, which is a violation on multiple levels.
Thanksgiving is a day to spend with family and friends, not go out and shop. As my late grandmother never failed to note whenever the subject came up, the irony of starting the year’s biggest single day of shopping on a day meant for thankfulness and reflection is quite noticeable.
This goes for both shoppers and employees. Retail employees can have notoriously tough jobs, especially with the excited energy that sometimes turns into belligerence on Black Friday. Everyone should be able to spend their Thanksgiving at home with friends and family, not knocking each other out of the way for a new TV or getting yelled at by unruly customers.
I think stores should open on Black Friday itself at an unnaturally early hour to keep the uniqueness of the day intact, but also to keep things interesting. Several stores open at midnight on Black Friday, which I think doesn’t leave enough recovery time from stuffing yourself at Thanksgiving dinner.
In my mind, the solution is for stores to open at four or five in the morning. It’s unusually early, so there’s still some level of uniqueness, but also it ensures that all shoppers and employees alike can sleep off their dinner and not have to worry about altering their dinner plans drastically.
But perhaps the most obvious issue of all is that you can’t call it a “Black Friday” sale if it isn’t even Black Friday yet. Black Friday is a famously single-day event. Spilling beyond that 24-hour window flies in the face of the day’s name, especially considering that people encroach on their Thanksgiving nights to go about their “Black Friday” shopping. This is why starting several hours into Friday itself is the best option.
Despite my enjoyment of America’s holiday for consumerism and capitalism, I appreciate the businesses that are closed on Black Friday, like REI and Nordstrom. I especially appreciate how Nordstrom doesn’t even put up Christmas decorations until Thanksgiving is over.
Most of all though, I love Cards Against Humanity’s take on Black Friday. They tend to make a joke out of Black Friday, having various special items for sale each day on Black Friday.
Last year they live-streamed their effort to dig a giant hole in the ground with money people gave them, with the digging continuing for as long as people continued contributing money. The campaign raised just over $100,000. In 2015, they offered customers the ability to give them $5 in exchange for absolutely nothing, and earned $71,145. The list goes on, but for the sake of saving both space and your time I won’t list them all.
Black Friday is a hallmark of the Christmas season, and I think that there are definitely adjustments that need to be made. Before we worry about that though, let’s focus on enjoying this Christmas.
