With Christmas around the corner it’s time to do some holiday shopping. While some plan to procrastinate and buy gifts around Christmas, most people will do their heavy holiday shopping on or around Black Friday.
Black Friday is almost here and almost all big time retailers have revealed their Black Friday ads. The question is: should you go out for Black Friday this year or wait for its big competitor, Cyber Monday? To be honest, both have amazing deals but only one of them requires you to wait in a huge line in the cold November weather. You probably already guessed that it’s Black Friday. With the Cyber Monday deals this year, do we even need to go out shopping on Black Friday anymore?
Similar to Boxing Day in Canada, Black Friday is where retail stores discount items to increase sales in hopes to improve the year’s profit margin. The term Black Friday originated in 1966 by Philadephia police department to describe the mayhem that ensued downtown as people shopped and/or traveled. It was not meant as a term of endearment. The National Retail Federation coined the term Cyber Monday as a brother to Black Friday where customers can shop all day online and receive super sale prices. Since it began in 2005, online sales have continued to increase each year.
Black Friday is a day that stores like Walmart, Best Buy, and others try to entice you with low prices on big ticket items. However when stores like Amazon and Ebay started offering Better Black Friday deals it led to many doing their shopping online. This led to the birth of Cyber Monday, a day where you can get Black Friday deals online. Now Cyber Monday deals are just as good if not better then Black Friday deals. According to Forbes In 2013, Cyber Monday sales grew by 20.6%, hitting a record of $2.29 billion. Now many people are thinking whether the harshness of Black Friday is worth it when they can just sit at home and do get the same bargains on their laptop.
But some make the argument that the experience of waiting in line for those holiday deals is what makes Black Friday so special; Knowing that everyone else is out there in the cold to get the same great deals before you. Alex Gall, a Black Friday veteran said, “It’s fun to go out to all the stores with friends, and it’s just an experience you can’t get on Cyber Monday.”
Despite both days being competitors, stores actually prefer that you do shopping on both days. Cyber Monday might be meant for online stores like Amazon but now almost all retailers participate in both Cyber Monday and Black Friday. Different deals happen on both days so this year I’m saving money for both days. No matter what day you do your holiday shopping on, make sure to get up early before all the best deals are sold out.
