Every Black Friday, my friends and I wake up early, get coffee, and then go to the mall. We map out where we want to shop the day before, in order to have the most time- and cost- efficient route possible. This long standing tradition is always something I look forward to. I get to hang out with my friends, and buy clothes all in one day. As I have gotten older, I have started participating in Cyber Monday more for the ease of online shopping, and, I think more people have been skipping out on Black Friday to do this too. However, I think we need to bring the excitement back to Black Friday, because when it comes to these two shopping holidays, Black Friday is just a better tradition.
At the heart of these two holidays, is the sale that comes with them. If the sales offered on Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday were different, I would definitely support the day with the bigger sale. However, most stores keep the same sale for both days, so neither one saves you more money than the other.
Black Friday however comes with a bonding experience. I love the rush of people, the unorganized clothes on the rack from people putting stuff back, and even the long lines that give me and my friends time to show each other what we are buying. Black Friday comes with a whole slew of experiences that Cyber Monday doesn’t have.
One of those experiences is fashion shows. I love going over to my friends house, while we all create outfits of our new clothes and try them on for each other. Black Friday means a whole day of shopping, and then a whole night of hanging out, watching movies, and eventually falling asleep (shopping is extremely tiring).
Cyber Monday just feels so impersonal. I sit in bed with a million tabs open on my computer, until I find something that I like. I buy it, and then go onto the next website, eventually getting bored. As excited as I am to get new stuff, it feels like any other shopping day. A week later, I get my package, I try on my new clothes, and they doesn’t fit. Now, I have to print a ton of return labels, package them all back up, and take time to drive to USPS or the UPS store to return the mountain of stuff I just bought.
Overall, the shopping dynamic in the world has changed. Fewer people spend a day at the mall, and more people periodically buy things from their laptop. And as convenient as this new culture is, we shouldn’t implement it instead of Black Friday. As a population, we have found ways to isolate ourselves from the public more and more. Black Friday used to be a day everyone got together and fought over clothes and sales. Now, it feels like that dynamic is slipping away. This year, we should take advantage of the sales, and make a day of shopping on Black Friday so we can get this feeling and excitement back.