WHY BLACK FRIDAY ISN’T WORTH IT

By Maria Parfenova

As millions of Americans rush to malls and department stores at midnight, sales begin and fights for merchandise arise. A lot of people take advantage of such discounts, while a decent amount resort to enjoying the weekend with their families and decide to skip out on the deals.

For the most part, the “deals”aren’t much different than their original prices. Nowadays, shops and businesses extend low prices to a month-long period instead of concentrating them all on a single day.

For many years, there’s been a hype surrounding this day, so many people believe that it’s ideal to get their Christmas shopping done in a rush. In reality, most stores drastically raise their prices a few days before. By the time Friday comes, the prices are reduced back to their original mark, according to Sarah Halzack from The Washington Post.

Former high school student Chelsea Scanlon said she went shopping on Black Friday but she regretted the fact that she had wasted her time, because she only had one successful purchase in the three hours she spent at the mall.

“The mall was way too crowded and some of the stores barely had any deals. It took me a while to find anything that I actually wanted because everybody bought all the good stuff already. Stores should have more items in stock considering it’s a popular day,” Scanlon said.

Senior Elisabeth Christ agrees that Black Friday isn’t anything like it used to be. She said she used to go out on that day every year for holiday shopping, but would get overwhelmed and forget to buy everything she planned to.

“People nowadays exploit Black Friday to buy things for people for Christmas because they think they have to. They think it’s cheaper and that the stigma is to go shopping for everyone, so people end up with stuff that they don’t want because it’s pointless,” Christ said.

People have also shown a concern for danger. In 2008, a Walmart employee was killed in a stampede. Even though the fear of being trampled and seriously injured during your shopping experience may not be a factor for everyone, the long checkout lines, for example, are still inescapable.

With many businesses straying away from the idea of Black Friday, it may have been a better idea to take the day off and to plan your gifts with more thought and variety of selection, so there’s no need to worry if you still haven’t found time to buy them.