Black Friday is a huge shopping event in the United States and has now become something of a global phenomenon. It is supposed to be the day on which people supposedly start to shop for Christmas. It is also the day that most businesses would move into the black turn a profit (no longer “in the red”). Like Halloween, this observance has mysteriously travelled to India as well.
It is typically the busiest shopping day of the year. It is the day after Thanksgiving – traditionally the fourth Thursday of November in the US.
They stock up, create special marketing campaigns and make sure all hands are on board to greet the onslaught of determined shoppers on Black Friday.
It is true that people line up outside stores from early in the morning or even set up camp of sorts the night previous to stores opening. Many stores open early and stay open till later than usual.
The crowds can be terrible, tempers fray and fights sometimes break out between shoppers.
Invariably, social media has all these funny-shocking videos going viral on and soon after Friday – all featuring people behaving badly on Black Friday
The deals
Some stores offer big discounts, of a range of products, often for just one day. So while some people do manage to get good deals on necessary products, for some it is an excuse to shop more.
Some of the ‘sales’ are not genuine, just sneaky clever marketing.
People end up buying things they don’t need simply because it is Black Friday or because the price seems irresistible. Sometimes people buy things just to thwart someone else who seems to want them.
For some of us, shopping is a dopamine hit… just the words ‘Sale’ or ‘Discount’ can create an irresistible Pavlovian response.
This was created by retailers to encourage people to shop online – perhaps to avoid being trampled to death by physical shoppers?
And now we have Black Friday Sales in India (where we don’t have anything to do with Thanksgiving) – because why not.
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