With Thanksgiving week just around the corner, there’s another hidden holiday that sometimes gains more hype than Thanksgiving, Black Friday. Some consider it a holiday that pushes dedicated shoppers to go to the extreme by camping outside of stores, while others don’t acknowledge it or just take a calmer approach to it. But why are we not seeing those funny pictures of adults fighting over toys or crowding stores anymore? This decline may just have to do with the surge of online shopping. 

Black Friday hit its peak in the 2000s and 2010s when shoppers used to start going out of their way just to get their hands on crazy deals. Considering it used to be the main and only day of deals, the prices were very worth it and many used to wait in long lines for hours in advance and get into crazy fights in stores just for products. It was also a very seasonable time as the holiday season comes right after which means a lot of gift-giving. You have most likely seen those photos and videos and thought of how absurd it looks, but back then, Black Friday was an understandable country-wide phenomenon.

When the invention of iPhones came along and it became a staple in our normal lives, everyone had everything accessible right in their pocket. One website that gained a lot of traction was Amazon, one of the first mainstream online shopping websites. To keep up with the Black Friday trend, the website started to add deals that last through Black Friday weekend up to Cyber Monday, another savings holiday similar to Black Friday. Instead of having to show up in person, buying things with a simple click and arriving straight to your door while still buying on deals became the convenient way of commerce for Americans. When I asked a student, Brylie Khamphouvong, about what she does for Black Friday, she said that she just shops on Amazon. When asked why, she responded, “Why would you go out when you can just stay on the couch and buy stuff from the comfort of your own home.”

There are also some other reasons for the decline such as retailers creating their online shopping websites like Target and Walmart and sales not being as rewarding as they used to be.

This holiday season, how much are you going to spend, or not spend at all, on Black Friday?