Black Friday Is Facing Extinction

[Atomic Playboy]

Used to be good back before it became so popular.

You're such a Black Friday hipster.

 

[Griffinhart]

http://business.time.com/2013/09/26/black-friday-is-facing-extinction/?hpt=hp_t3

Is Black Friday dying? More evidence is showing up indicating that the day after Thanksgiving is not the best day for finding deals. Some retail experts are even forecasting that Black Friday will disappear as an American consumer tradition.


maybe for black Friday B&M.

but I like black Friday online. order from the comfort of your own home. same pricing w/o the lines. sometimes even better pricing

I work in IT for a retail company. Black Friday is not dying, though it is being spread out more. More and more large retailers are starting on Thanksgiving now.

Online, one of our busiest days is Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving) but the day we see the most web traffic is the Friday before Christmas.

 

[ThinClient]

It never lived for me. If it dies out, I'm sure people will find some other triviality to jump on.

Cyber Monday.

 

[Anubis]

BF online only... shopping in PJs is the way to go. And even so I never get more than 1 or 2 small items. Last year was a 3TB drive for $100 which is now common.

why are you dressing up to shop online?

 

[Imp]

Boxing Day, our Black Friday, was dead to me forever, then I went shopping for a few years in a row just to watch the crowds.

Only Hollister and Abercrombie seemed to have good deals -- if you use the measure of a good deal being the "exclusive line" outside the store from opening until closing.

 

[dr150]

I laugh at people who stand in line for hours at a store at the crack of dawn for a chance to buy one of three 50" TVs for $300.

Exactly. Why bother getting up at 3 AM or whatever just to stand in line for hours when you can get deals which are definitely as good or better online? Even Amazon's deals last year weren't exceptional, however -- I only scored a couple of small items.

I've never stood in line for any crapola BF product. IF there is an extreme deal, it's for a shitty no-name China product which they have in scarce quantities to begin with.

Patience pays off to get the deals.

Slickdeals.net can OUTDO ANY stupid BF event. :thumbsup:

 

[AdamK47]

Marketing will always keep it alive for the masses. In the past few years there have been mostly pseudo sales with a huge marketing behind them.

 

[Pray To Jesus]

A new report from dealnews states that over the past two years shoppers have been most likely to locate the best deals not on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, but on Thanksgiving and the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend.

 

[IGemini]

Never was a Black Friday shopper, only worked during one...which wasn't all that bad actually. I'll never shop at Walmart for tech stuff, though...seeing the condition of their warehousing.

I'm a year-round deal shopper, BF and CM are "modest" at best. Plus my work starts 7-day weeks throughout the holiday then anyway, I'm wanting for sleep as much as I can.

 

[tfinch2]

I enjoy BF, but I am not hardcore about it. I usually leave the house Friday morning around 9-10 AM, and hit a couple of places. Places like Lowe's and Home Depot usually have their BF deals in stock well into Friday, so you can score some deals there. I do not wait in lines though, ever.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

For some that is the only way they will ever own a 50" TV

I only went out on a Black Friday once, just to witness the depravity of people. I did it at a BrandsMart. There were no less than 10 officers on duty yet still people were fighting and yelling at each other.

Well shit, here I am survivng off a 37". This shit is NOT fair. I DEMAND the government upgrade my TV - I am entitled to an updated television to further null my brain cells.

 

[xanis]

Marketing will always keep it alive for the masses. In the past few years there have been mostly pseudo sales with a huge marketing behind them.

This sounds about right. You can get just as good if not better deals on things at various points in the year if you keep your eyes open.

 

[T9D]

Black friday is garbage.

Lets see, 5 TV's at a huge reduction that go in the first 5 seconds after people waiting in line all night. No thanks.

 

[alkemyst]

Black friday is garbage.

Lets see, 5 TV's at a huge reduction that go in the first 5 seconds after people waiting in line all night. No thanks.

While I wouldn't do it, people that have camped out sort of had fun.

 

[Aikouka]

I don't think it's facing extinction at all. Yes, you can certainly get great deals all throughout the year, but there are also awesome deals on Black Friday. To be clear, I don't go out to wait in line for any of them, but there are certainly some good ones. I did do some Black Friday shopping on Amazon last year, and I normally go out later in the day to see if there are any good Blu-Ray movie deals left over.

Last year was a 3TB drive for $100 which is now common.

The $90 deal at Newegg (and I think Amazon) for the Seagate 3TB drives is still a good deal even today.

 

[Ayrahvon]

Nobody goes to black friday anymore because it's too crowded... is what Yogi Berra would have said.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Black friday is stupid.
Dec 24 is the best shopping day if you are going to buy annual solstice related gifts for people.

 

[Exterous]

it started to die when the big stores started the BF crap on thursday 6PM. and yes the deals are not like they used to be.

It just keeps getting diluted more and more. Cyber Monday. Pre-Black Friday Friday, Black Friday week, Post Black Friday deals, Cyber Tuesday, Staying open for longer on Thanksgiving more and more every year...

 

[BudAshes]

Nobody goes to black friday anymore because it's too crowded... is what Yogi Berra would have said.

"The future aint what it used to be."

 

[Crono]

2006 and 2007 were the only good years I remember, stopped paying attention after that, basically after which the stores realized they were getting free news coverage and that they could milk the public.

"Cyber Monday" was only good for a year.

 

[PokerGuy]

I used to stand out overnight at Circuit City or other stores back when they had a really good deal on a particular item (like a laptop I wanted). It has completely jumped the shark, with all the companies racing to make the "sale" earlier and earlier, now everything is on Thanksgiving, and the deals suck. No thanks, I'll just stay home.

 

[Mursilis]

Consumers are savvy these days and realize that BF deals are not what they used to be.

Some consumers are savvy, but most are clueless and fall for the hype. "It's Black Friday and it says 'sale' on it - it must be a great price!" The lines get longer as the deals get worse.

 

[fleshconsumed]

I don't think it's dead for the general populace. Even if BF sales are slowly declining by a couple of percent year to year, that's nothing. However, it is dead to me and has been for the last 3 or so years? Most of the BF deals in the last 3 years have been really lackluster. And I have never and will never stand for door busters - way too much effort. That said occasionally I will wake up early on Friday if there is an item at a deep discount that I need and I believe there is a reasonable chance of me getting it without spending the whole night waiting at the store. I normally wake up for work at 6am, and occasionally I'm up at 5am, so waking up at 4am is not really a big deal for me. I need to upgrade one of my PCs this year, and I hope that Microcenter will have intel mobo/cpu combo on sale this BF like they did last year. That's the only thing I'm willing to get up for this year.

 

[exdeath]

I buy what I want when I want it.

Never cared to wait in line and be surrounded by smelly nerds and trailer trash to POSSIBLY save $100 on a bottom barrel TV.

 

[alkemyst]

I buy what I want when I want it.

Never cared to wait in line and be surrounded by smelly nerds and trailer trash to POSSIBLY save $100 on a bottom barrel TV.

This is you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZLVi4v7lSM