Why Black Friday shoppers still crowd stores
To many of us, the idea of rushing out to a mall or superstore the day after Thanksgiving is about as appealing as standing in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Why, we ask, would anyone race to crowded stores when they could stay in with family, watch college football, or rediscover the miracle that is mayonnaise as an agent for repurposing leftover turkey?
We can’t say we know the answer for sure. But we do marvel at those who pour into stores looking for Black Friday bargains. Seemingly, nothing can stop them. Not the weather. Not the crowds. Not the mayhem. Not the gloom that has overtaken retail as investors fret over an economy overdue for a slowdown. And not the fact that hurrying to a store in the age of instant e-commerce seems so … last century.
To be sure, holiday shopping habits do appear to be shifting. The National Retail Federation has stopped breaking out its holiday sales numbers by whether they come from e-tail purchases or from physical stores. (It predicts an overall seasonal increase of 4.1 percent this year over 2017.) That’s a pretty good sign retailers don’t want to bring further attention to the declining fortunes of brick-and-mortar sites.
But there is no denying that people still love going to stores. Actual shopping in actual places remains an important part of the holiday ritual for millions of Americans. To many, it’s the difference between playing a sport and playing a video game.
As crassly commercial as stores may be, they are still places where actual human beings interact. They convey more authenticity than being “friended” by strangers, or “following” pseudo celebrities with millions of others.
In a store, the intrepid shopper commits the affirmative act of finding a present. That item might be heavily promoted by the store, but it doesn’t drop into one’s cart. It is picked up and examined before a decision is made. May- be it gets put back on the shelf when the shopper changes his or her mind. Maybe there is a conversation with a sales clerk. The process is not that different than it would have been decades ago.
Online, the shopper has barely logged in before being confronted with creepy algorithmic suggestions based on prior purchases. Said shopper clicks. And, like that, it is over. This hardly qualifies as shopping. This hardly qualifies as thinking.
Perhaps we are reading too much into the Black Friday phenomenon. Maybe people simply feel housebound after Thanksgiving. Maybe they have had enough of family togetherness. Maybe they can’t resist a bargain, or the perception of a bargain. But we suspect that one reason Black Friday endures is that it involves a tiny act of rebellion against the internet age.
Such rebellion would hardly be unreasonable. There aren’t many studies showing that time spent in stores is bad for one’s health. There are quite a few drawing a link between time spent online — particularly on social media platforms — and depression or anxiety.
Perhaps the people crowding into stores aren’t the crazy ones after all.