Black Friday frenzy on the decline

By Owen Musgrove,
Bluedevilhub.com Staff–

The hype of staying up all night after a Thanksgiving meal for unbeatable deals is dying due to stores offering online and week-long sales in lieu of one day known as Black Friday.

Some, like sophomore Bradley Kishaba–who has “been Black Friday shopping for three years”–hit the stores early, on Thursday night.

“Not only is it a great way to get great deals on Christmas gifts for the ones you love, but also a treat for yourself,” Kishaba said.

After Thanksgiving dinner with his family, Kishaba headed out to Dick’s Sporting Goods for some holiday deals.

“I bought my little brother a new pair of basketball shoes for half price,” Kishaba said.

Others prefer to skip the lines and do all their shopping online. According to retail researcher ShopperTrak, Black Friday sales are down more than $1 billion. Meanwhile, online sales jumped 14 percent nationwide from last year.

These numbers don’t even include sales from Cyber Monday, when online sales thrive. The one-day digital sales are estimated to be around $3 billion, which would be the largest single digital sales day in history.

“I prefer to shop online because you can do it at home, get better deals, it’s faster and there are no lines,” sophomore Ayush Malik said. “I bought a new pair of Adidas Tiro pants online for $20 and they are normally $45.”

Also cutting into Friday sales are stores that now open earlier on Thanksgiving Day and continue to offer discounts into the weekend. Some students decided this year to avoid the potential crush of Black Friday sales by waiting until Saturday.

“I waited until Saturday because it wasn’t very crowded and we went at like nine in the morning and all the same deals were there,” sophomore Amanda Nazario said.