{"id":746,"date":"2025-01-25T01:41:36","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T01:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/black-friday-used-to-be-fun-for-shoppers-what-happened\/"},"modified":"2025-01-25T01:41:36","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T01:41:36","slug":"black-friday-used-to-be-fun-for-shoppers-what-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/black-friday-used-to-be-fun-for-shoppers-what-happened\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Friday Used to Be Fun for Shoppers. What Happened?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For Max Frazier, shopping on Black Friday used to be one of his favorite annual traditions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Thanksgiving, Mr. Frazier and his wife would scan through newspaper ads looking for deals on toys that they wanted to buy their grandchildren. They were excited to wake up early and line up outside stores at 4:30 a.m., running through their shopping game plan as they waited.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One year, one of Mr. Frazier\u2019s granddaughters announced that she wanted a giant teddy bear she had seen at Target. So after Mr. Frazier and his wife found a Black Friday deal for it, they made sure to be some of the first people in line before the store opened, headed straight to where they knew the bears would be and scooped one up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhen we were checking out, people were like, \u2018Where did you get that bear?\u2019\u201d Mr. Frazier, a 67-year-old retired teacher, recalled. \u201cWe had fun loading it in the car. It was like having a new passenger with us as we were heading home. And it was only 10 bucks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Those days are a thing of the past. Mr. Frazier said he had not shopped on Black Friday in at least five years. It no longer feels like an adventure. He and his wife now sleep in on Friday mornings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cShopping has really changed,\u201d he said, pointing out that most sales today occur online. \u201cI guess we are a little nostalgic for the fun we used to have on Black Friday because that doesn\u2019t exist anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After The New York Times asked readers this week to share their thoughts about shopping on Black Friday, more than 75 wrote in, with a vast majority saying they were not planning to shop on the day. Many lamented that it no longer felt like a unique shopping event and that sales often continued into the new year. Others suggested supporting small businesses rather than big-box retailers, whether they offered sales or not, or avoiding shopping altogether by participating in \u201cBuy Nothing Day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Liz Jarvis used to love Black Friday but has become disappointed by how it has changed over the years. People used to dress up in holiday gear, she said, and drink coffee and chat while waiting in line at 7 a.m. \u2014 a reasonable hour to her. When stores opened, the staff would hand out coupons or prizes and make the day feel special \u2014 and yes, fun. She and her husband would finish all their shopping by noon and celebrate by going out to lunch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But something began to shift. Stores started opening earlier and shoppers began arriving bleary-eyed in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI remember a year when my husband and I got in line at Best Buy at 3 a.m.,\u201d Ms. Jarvis, who lives in Livonia, Mich., and works as a school board trustee, said in an email. \u201cIt was freezing. We took turns, with one of us holding our place in line, stamping our feet against the cold, while the other thawed out in the car until it was time to switch places. All because we needed a new TV.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When stores moved their sales to midnight and, eventually, online, announcing them right after Halloween, Ms. Jarvis, 61, said it stopped feeling fun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">These days, she and her husband have found the deals less enticing. They also simply do not need as many things, Ms. Jarvis said. And while they did not have any plans to shop on Friday, she said she hoped retailers would figure out how to make the day fun again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hayley Leibson was one of the few readers who wrote in to say that she \u201cfiercely loves\u201d Black Friday in its current form, despite describing herself as a person who \u201chates shopping\u201d and wears the same outfit every day: jeans and a black T-shirt. All the sales moving online have been a boon; she prefers to shop from the comfort of her own home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Leibson, 30, carries a Moleskine notebook with her and keeps a running list of all the things her family needs, she said, including personal care products, shoes, clothing and other items for her two children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cOn Black Friday, when those sales come up, I buy everything I\u2019ll need for the entire year,\u201d said Ms. Leibson, who lives in Mill Valley, Calif., and works in tech. She looks out for big-ticket items like mattresses, which tend to have large discounts on Black Friday. This year, she said, she was looking forward to buying some running shoes from Hoka.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI have my list,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the morning, I will just go on all of the websites and then just buy everything in one shot<em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For others, the hunt for holiday discounts begins well before Black Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Susan Cameron, who lives in Swan Valley, Mont., said she had been keeping an eye out for a discount on a Breville toaster oven for her son and his wife. She bought one from Amazon after she had seen a deal for $300 \u2014 $100 off the original price.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI received it already because, you know, Black Friday apparently starts the week before Thanksgiving now,\u201d Ms. Cameron, 57, said. \u201cThat saved $100 makes my budgeted holiday money go even further.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For Max Frazier, shopping on Black Friday used to be one of his favorite annual traditions. On Thanksgiving, Mr. Frazier and his wife would scan through newspaper ads looking for deals on toys that they wanted to buy their grandchildren. They were excited to wake up early and line up outside stores at 4:30 a.m., [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[486,306,372,488,487],"class_list":["post-746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-loan","tag-black","tag-friday","tag-fun","tag-happened","tag-shoppers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}