Black Friday is an American tradition dating back to the 1960s when Philadelphia Police started using the term, “Black Friday” to describe the traffic and huge crowds the day after Thanksgiving. This tradition includes tons of people going to big malls, shopping centers, and stores in general to get the best deals of their popular products. People from all over drive to bigger malls and even sit outside for hours to get the best deals on products they want. This is the kick off of the holiday season and gives everyone an opportunity to start off their Christmas shopping on a high. Black Friday then became a yearly American tradition. It wasn’t until the 1980s when Black Friday really took off. Retailers were only releasing so many products, some released for the first time on black Friday. People were lining up outside of their favorite stores to get the best deals on their favorite products. This craziness surrounded by Black Friday took place for multiple decades.
Cyber Monday was first created in 2006 followed by the popular start up of the internet and technology as we know it today. Followed by the creation of the internet, Iphones, Ipads, and more modern day technology, all these retail stores decided to have a day specifically for electronics. This day is now known as Cyber Monday. Much like Black Friday, Cyber Monday starts on a specific day each year, which is the Monday after Thanksgiving. This now extends the shopping to a whole weekend. Over the years most stores allowed their sales to continue throughout the entire weekend. This means the now one day holiday shopping kickoff has now been made into a weekend with more days than ever. This made the weekend’s popularity immensely grow in size as more and more people participated in the holiday shopping.
Over the past couple of decades, Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping has drastically changed. With the invention of the internet, phones, computers, laptops, and many other sets of technology, the option to shop online was brought into the equation. This made it so people could start shopping for Black Friday and Cyber Monday online. When people realized this, they started leaning more towards online Black Friday shopping. This then caused the Black Friday craze of going in person and waiting outside for hours to slow down much more. Instead people were found in front of their computers waiting for a website’s new launch to drop. It is said that this year 71% of Black Friday shopping will be done online and 29% in person. Online shopping has taken over Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Some say for the better. It is much easier to sit in the comfort of your home to shop for your holiday gifts. While other people argue that online shopping ruins the whole point of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, some argue that the in person tradition should be restored.
