Black Friday: the day people used to line up in front of the stores all night in order to have first access to the discounts. However, with the rise of technology, more people have been participating in Cyber Monday rather than Black Friday.

Every Black Friday, I would wake up to the smell of McDonald’s pancakes, which taste a lot better than you would think. When I smelled those buttery, fluffy pancakes I knew that meant my mom had come home from shopping for Christmas presents. She would always wake up extremely early in order to go to the store to find amazing deals. Specifically, my parents would always go to Babies “R” Us in order to stock up on diapers for the year for my sister and I. What a great way to spend the holiday … in the diaper aisle. 

When I was younger I always dreamed of going with my mom, wanting to experience the craziness I had seen on TV. But sadly, my mom wouldn’t let me. How dare she be a good mom and be concerned about my safety and therefore get in the way of my shopping experience! After a few years, I finally ended up going Black Friday shopping, and it was much different than I expected.

I didn’t end up going Black Friday shopping until last year when my friend Addie Walker and I decided to brave Oakbrook Center. My mom had told me that the commotion had died down over the years, but we were still a little anxious. As we were driving, we talked about all the crazy stories we have heard about Black Friday: people playing tug of war with a TV or dying in an attempt to get the new iPhone. 

As I was looking up specifics online, I found a website called Black Friday Death Count (yes, it’s actually called that). It literally just lists the number of people killed and injured on Black Friday. If you were wondering, it’s currently 17 people killed and 125 injured. Taking that into account, we tried to prepare ourselves for the worst, ready to see how crazy it could be.

Spoiler alert:, it wasn’t. 

It was completely underwhelming, it just seemed like a slightly more busy day at the mall.

As we walked from store to store we saw lots of people, but not lots of deals. All of the discounts were horrendous. I went to get a gift for my mom from Bath and Body Works, and I saw they had a “buy three get three for free” discount. Addie and I started smelling every candle and soap in sight, trying to find the best gift for my mom. As I got to the cash register, I expected it to be maybe $30.

It was almost $80. 

I was genuinely shocked when I saw that big of a number on the screen. I had only gotten soaps and candles, so WHY WAS IT SO EXPENSIVE?! The cherry on top was that it was the best deal I ended up seeing at the mall.

The main issue I ran into was the amount of people; they weren’t fighting or anything, they were just standing there so it wasn’t even entertaining. The amount of people wasn’t just an issue at Oakbrook Center, but was also an issue at Woodfield Mall. The overcrowding was so bad that they had to close the doors of Woodfield mall.

Senior Wiktoria Andrzejewska works at the Claire’s in Woodfield Mall, and as she pulled up to her shift she realized that there was no parking. After searching for a spot she ultimately parked from the opposite side of the mall to where Claire’s was. After parking, she speedily walked to the store. Upon entering, she abruptly noticed how much busier it was compared to her standard shift, so she quickly got to work. 

“As soon as I walked in it was busy… It was crazy,” Andrzejewska said.

Andrzejewska didn’t end up having many difficulties with customers, besides the occasional waiting complaint. The amount of people made her shift stressful, so she had to rapidly adapt to this new environment.

“You have to be able to do many things at once … I was constantly switching up what I was doing,” Andrzejewska said. “You are kind of all over the place for the entire time you’re there and it gets overwhelming, [but] you have to just keep going.”
Though stressed, she ultimately had a lot of fun working on that shift because didn’t have to deal with any crazy customers.

Although not as crazy, one of those shoppers is sSenior Vanessa Dao. Dao loves to shop and she grew up watching her parents get all of these amazing deals, so she was excited to be able to experience Black Friday with her own money.

“My favorite thing about being able to shop is definitely having my own independence, not having to rely on my parents so much [for] having to buy stuff for me,” Dao said.

However, she quickly realized that there aren’t as many good deals as there used to be when she was younger. Dao feels that the lack of sales not only limits her experience, but also limits many different types of people who can shop due to different consumer price ranges. Black Friday allows people who wouldn’t be able to afford these products to have the opportunity to get them. Now that the prices have gone up, these opportunities are gone.

With the rise of technology, a lot of people have turned to solely use online websites in order to get their holiday shopping done. According to Forbes, 34.6% of shoppers are fully committed to online-only and 58.4% mix online and in-store shopping.

I believe that part of the reason people have turned to online shopping is due to COVID-19. During the pandemic, people turned a lot to technology for shopping. People use InstaCart, Amazon and other websites in order to get necessities.

In 2020, Black Friday shoppings decreased 20%, according to The New York Times, due to people not being able to leave their homes. However,the number has gone up over time, but the number of people who go in-person for shopping is still low. This is because people just continued to shop online as they did in 2020.

Although Black Friday isn’t as big of a deal as it used to be, I think it’s for the best. People are a lot safer and people can be comfortable in their own homes while getting these deals. However, I do believe that stores need to make better discounts. I shouldn’t be paying $80 for some candles and soap and it being considered a deal. If stores have better sales on products, more people will want to go, resulting in them making more money. This will help to benefit the businesses and the shopper.

“I would definitely see people being able to buy something that they really wanted that’s been on their wish list for a while, but haven’t been able to afford it until Black Friday, because it’s at a discounted price,” Dao said. “They might still want to [buy it, but they can’t], which really sucks.”