Black Friday may be a boon for stores, but consumers are wisening up to the fact that the day provides simply unremarkable sales, at least in relation to the rest of the season.
Despite the day after Thanksgiving’s reputation as a cultural lodestar, complete with horde-instigated fatalities and camped-out crowds waiting for 5 a.m. openings, Black Friday deals are only the beginning of the best. Although plenty of tech gadgets gain their most competitive prices that day, traditional Christmas gifts such as home goods and toys actually get cheaper as Dec. 25 gets closer. Plenty of big-ticket items have better days than Black Friday.
Just as gyms will slash membership prices for folks looking to burn a few pounds in the new year, treadmills and ellipticals for your own home are cheaper in January than they are at any other point in the year. If you want a nicer television than those sold in doorbuster Black Friday sales, wait until after the Super Bowl.
Luckily, it seems that the public is catching on that, at last, the consumer is king.
In the past four years, the number of people predicting they’ll shop on Black Friday has plummeted from 59% to 36%. Nearly twice as many report that they’ll shop online rather than in physical stores, with half of all shoppers saying they’ll shop the week after.
Brick-and-mortar stores confined supply and controlled demand. But with every option under the sun on the internet, consumer demand is wildly elastic. You don’t need to park outside of a Best Buy in the frigid cold after your Thanksgiving meal when you can also just order a television on Amazon from the comfort of your own bed on Cyber Monday.
So, this Black Friday, don’t fret that you’re missing out on the best deals of the year. Eat your leftovers in peace and plot your shopping for the rest of the month instead.
