BLACK FRIDAY: A consumer’s craze has turned bargain hunting into violence, reckless spending and crime.
By Malik Alexander, Staff Writer
Thanksgiving has traditionally brought families together in the spirit of appreciation and thankfulness, but like all good things, capitalism has found a way to infiltrate this sacred holiday with Black Friday. Black Friday is the American consumer’s dream: a day where sales and deals entice shoppers to spend significant amounts on half-priced TVs and fifteen-percent-off pairs of shoes. Instead of spending time with family, many Americans find themselves waiting in Space Mountain-sized lines at four in the morning to get a chance to fight over those two-for-one Yankee Candles. This event not only feeds capitalists’ green dollar cravings, but breeds immense chaos and crime. Violence, theft and even a recorded death have resulted from the Black Friday mobs and the craze that comes with savings. Are these penny-saving deals worth these horrific instances of human depravity?
In order to draw in customers, businesses have resorted to producing bigger and better deals and savings. National Research Foundation (NRF) found that stores participating in Black Friday had increased sales by nearly fifty percent.
Target and Walmart, both huge participants in this holiday event, have consistently broken sales records. In fact, according to CNN’s Emily Fox, for many stores, Black Friday makes up ten to fifteen percent of sales for the year.
Black Friday savings attract low income families trying to snag the deals, even from other people’s hands. NRF statistics revealed that people with an income between $40,000 and $75,000 occupied sixty percent of Black Friday bargain hunters, and women are responsible for sixty-four percent of Black Friday shopping. Age has also been a huge factor for participation in the craze that is Black Friday. Nearly forty-three percent of Black Friday shoppers between 2013–2015 were in the 18–28 age group. Fundivo, an accounting statistic firm, found that average spending for the Black Friday shopper from 2012 to 2015 was a whopping $385.
Black Friday also brings the constant threat of theft and violence. Fortune.com reported that thefts nationwide had an increase of four percent on Black Friday. For ConsumerAffairs.com, Christopher Maynard discovered that when businesses made insurance claims, thefts were up by forty-three percent. Theft isn’t the only reported crime during this holiday shopping extravaganza. Although it’s commonly understood that Black Friday refers to the day when retailers become profitable for the year, the term was first used by police officers in Philadelphia in the sixties, and was “not a term of endearment to them,” since “it usually brings massive traffic jams and overcrowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing.” economists Nick Warring comments. Reports of brawls over $15 dolls and half-off handbags have ended in bloody trips to the ER or sometimes the county jail. Stampedes of anxious shoppers waiting to get their hungry hands on that new Samsung TV revert to throwing punches and wrestling. In 2012, a Walmart worker in Rhode Island was trampled and killed in the opening of the store that early morning, his body mangled by the feet of spenders. NRF reported that between 2010–2015, there has been a total of 147 “in-store,” reported injuries. David Borough, a writer for The Huffington Post, reported that many arrests have been made in stores such as Victoria’s Secret, Walmart, Target and even a CVS Pharmacy for violent outbreaks and “barbaric behavior.” These horrendous displays of human greed have left a bloody stain on Black Friday.
Numbers have dropped in the past couple years for Black Friday attendance, with the NRF actually observing a three percent drop in shoppers. Stores have had to adjust to customers’ fears of the Black Friday craze. Many stores such as Old Navy, Target, Kohl’s and other retailers have extended sales often to the entire weekend. After all, people should have the opportunity to snag deals without requiring a background in martial arts. Another growing event for consumers is Cyber Monday, a day where deals and sales can be found on the websites of these retailers. Huge participants include Amazon, Kohl’s, Toys “R” Us, and others all giving shoppers the ability to buy their products from the safety of their home.
Should we allow corporations to profit off chaos and carnage? Black Friday is a holiday event that seems beneficial to thrifty shoppers but is in fact a capitalistic scheme for businesses. For those searching for safer channels to save, many stores participate in Cyber Monday or even extend sales through the entire Thanksgiving weekend. There needs to be a symbiosis between consumer and supplier that allows for profit with safety, and Black Friday is a threat to this everywhere.