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Black Friday has been around for a long time and will most likely remain the busiest shopping day of the year.
But the features that have made it a cultural phenomenon – low-cost electronics, pre-dawn openings, roadside campsites, incivility – are changing with the landscape of detail in the broad sense.
Buyers can now find good deals well before and long after Black Friday, and some offers explicitly aim to reduce expenses related to the main event. The retail bonanza is becoming more and more indifferent or disapproving of Americans who want to spend time with their families, sleep and give a break to underpaid retail employees. Black Friday is slowing down, while e-commerce represents a growing share of sales.
Here is a preview of Black Friday, past and present.
The shakeout at retail
No shop, no deal: store closures redraw lines
Most of the retailers who drew the longest lines of the past Black Fridays are now gone, closed by parent companies crushed by debt or abandoned by customers who migrate online. Retailers closed almost 8,000 stores in 2017, a record, according to UBS. Toys "R" Us has closed all stores this summer. Sears filed for bankruptcy in October.
Sears at the Great Lakes Mall in Mentor, Ohio, which had attracted greedy buyers in 2011, closed last year and has not been replaced yet. In 2016, the mall installed Amazon lockers, where customers can pick up and return packages purchased online.
Product declassification
The big articles take second place (until Monday cyber)
Sylvia Herfeldt started touching Black Friday sales once she learned to drive. In 2010, she queued for hours with her brother Daniel to spend about $ 400 on a 42-inch Insignia flat screen TV in a Fort Worth Best Buy store. Their sister and friends were sent to other stores. The Herfelds eventually sold the television and replaced it with a 50-inch LG television that they had bought $ 350 three years ago, also at Best Buy, also at Black Friday.
Since then, both brothers and sisters have lost interest in shopping madness. Mr. Herfeldt, who lives in Denton, Texas, said he could "wait until the end, when everyone will have calmed down" to see if there are still clothes, movies or video games at reduced prices. large purchases can wait, he said. Mrs. Herfeldt stated that she planned to spend time with her boyfriend's family in Orlando, Florida, looking forward to Cyber Monday. "Amazon is like my best friend," she said.
Rethinking campsites on sidewalks
Swap the front of the line for free shipping
Claiming first place on the Black Friday line, often weeks in advance, was often considered no point of pride. A few days before the 2011 shopping, customers were sitting on lawn chairs and tents in front of a Best Buy in Mesquite, Texas.
Instead, the majority of consumers are considering taking advantage of free shipping offers. Others will opt for outdoor activities, motivated by the discounted admission offers of park organizations and REI's three-year anti-Black Friday marketing campaign.
Melee management
An enlargement of the window of purchase leads to quieter lines
The enthusiasm for Black Friday was rife when expectations were long and parking spaces became scarce. Fights broke out in California, Texas, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, involving fists, pepper spray, stun guns and more. A dispute over cutting lines in front of a busy target in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 2012, quickly turned into shoving and yelling.
The shops continue to thrill the passions, but Black Friday has become quieter as it continues in November black and buyers are finding deals online at events like Amazon Prime Day and Cyber Monday. Walmart, Target and other retailers are also trying to control customer frustration by equipping employees with mobile payment technology, by downloading store cards in their apps and offering customers free coffee and snacks this year .
security upgrades
Reduce violence, multiply barriers and improve communication
Since then, Walmart has worked with crowd management experts and local law enforcement to ensure buyer safety, he said. Retailers have also learned to calm the fear of losing customers. "The chaos was caused by the frenzy of trying to get limited supplies and the great unknown of what was going to be inside the store," said Marshal Cohen, sales analyst at detail at NPD Group. "Retailers never really told you what was going to happen inside, but today, you can find out even a month in advance."
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