Consumers Spend More Online on Black Friday

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According to V.ENEWS, CBS News, & the Huffington Post, “consumers spent 20% more online on Black Friday than last year while online sales jumped 39% on Thanksgiving Day.”

As I’m sitting around the dinner table on Thanksgiving with my family we started an interesting discussion about the stores opening at midnight, the employee’s petitions, the consumer’s responsibility in this trend, the media and company’s responsibility, and how the internet would play a part in this year and future year’s shopping on Black Friday.

I stated I believed more people would begin shopping online to avoid some of the mayhem caused in past years such as the infamous pepper spray incident at Walmart while a woman frantically tried to get the last of a much desired item. One of my brother-in-laws brought up the point it’s not Walmart’s fault the woman let Black Friday go to her head. My father then brought up the issue of stores that are opening at midnight and how he believes it intrudes upon the tradition of Thanksgiving. He has a point; he also added how he admires stores like Chick-Fil-A who aren’t open on Sundays and Ukrop’s who is no longer open, now Martin’s, but also refused to open on Sundays and did not sell alcohol.

Are we doing away with tradition in the name of capitalism? How far is too far? I believe there must be a balance, but my brother-in-law is right, ultimately it is the consumer’s responsibility to have shopping behavior that reflects their values. Practice what you preach. The consumer has more power than they know. I thought it interesting the statistics that emerged from this year’s Black Friday. I am glad to see more online shoppers and less support to stores staying open when employees should be with their families. My other brother-in-law brought up the point that the employees who made the decision to work for companies who decide to do so are responsible for working there but many do not have the option to just quit because they do not agree, thus the petitions.

Cyber Monday statistics will be interesting to see as well. The internet is convenient but there is still a percentage of the population that do not shop online. I avoided Black Friday all together as did the rest of my family. In the end we felt, it’s just not worth it and we did not want to support a trend that seems to be getting out of control. Thanksgiving should be about family; good food and the company of loved ones creating memories no retailer can top.

That’s not to say taking advantage of deals is a bad thing but like I said it’s all about balance and remembering the true meaning of Thanksgiving. The articles are an interesting read, click on either news sources I mentioned to read further.

 

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