Have We Reached Peak Black Friday?

As another weekend of obscene spending kicks off, there is mounting evidence to suggest that shoppers are beginning to turn away from this festival of frivolity. With the global economic outlook less than promising for most, is it time that people started tightening their purse strings and shunning this carnival of consumerism? How sustainable is it to have each year see new records of spending broken again and again?

Whilst yes, this is an important day/weekend/entire week for a lot of retailers, at what cost does this splurge window come? Is it really necessary to focus so much consumer spending into a narrow timeframe? Could shoppers and merchants alike start pushing back against Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Black Friday: A Brief History

It turns out there are a few different theories as to how Black Friday got its name. Most of them are of course nonsense. We tend to prefix "Black" to a day to denote something bad, such as the 1992 Sterling crisis where John Major's Conservative government crashed the UK economy on what was termed Black Wednesday.

Similarly, across the pond, the term Black Friday was first used in 1869 to refer to a Wall Street stock market crash. Again, black meaning bad. But this doesn't relate to our Black Friday now.

The present day bonanza of buying that is Black Friday is, of course, an American tradition rooted around their Thanksgiving holiday which takes place on the fourth Thursday of November each year. The following day would traditionally see shops inundated with customers as shoppers took the opportunity to supplement their Thanksgiving day off with a further day of "vacation" to attack the shops in advance of Christmas.

The story goes that this was the day in which retailers would finally turn a profit for the year, going "into the black" (i.e. recording income exceeding expenditure in their sales ledgers). This would make sense as the origin of the term Black Friday. And yet it's not the reason.

The Real Reason for the Term Black Friday

Turns out the term being used in its current context dates back to 1950s Philadelphia when floods of people would hit the streets on the Friday after Thanksgiving due to the big Army v Navy American Football match that traditionally took place that weekend. If you're interested this game still goes ahead every year though the date has moved (it's now in December) and they rotate the venues so it's not a Philadelphia specific event anymore.

The huge crowds of locals and tourists visiting for the big game were accompanied by the now-traditional throngs of post Thanksgiving shoppers, creating crowds and traffic the city struggled to deal with. The local police, faced with long arduous shifts to try and manage these challenging conditions, started referring to the day as Black Friday. As the force was so stretched, petty criminals took advantage and shoplifting increased, only adding to the sense that this was a "black" day if you were on the right side of the law!

It wasn't until the 1980s that the term made its way beyond Pennsylvania and eventually the growing nationwide trend to shop hard on Black Friday saw the term reach common parlance.

Black Friday Today

Despite its origins in a very American celebration, Black Friday has managed to spread across the globe and can be found in some form or another in most countries that celebrate Christmas, as an invitation to spend big in advance of the festive season. Shops typically offer sales and promotions to further encourage (over)spending on this date and this is why we now often associate the day with in-store stampedes as bargain hungry shoppers fight one another to be first to the deals.

Though not directly related, it is hard not to consider an association between the west's Black Friday and China's Singles Day, which is the planet's single busiest shopping day, with sales eclipsing those made on Black Friday by some margin. So the numbers don't lie. People love to be told when to shop.

Whilst Black Friday was typically a boon day for bricks and mortar shops expecting their best sales of the year, in more recent years online retailers have begun to take more of the pie. Initially, the Monday following Black Friday was coined "Cyber Monday", designated the day to spend big on online purchases. However today there is far less distinction as most online retailers target Black Friday as well as the rest of the weekend and often the entire preceding week. In fact, marketers would now have you believe all of the following shopping days should be observed:

Black Friday - the original day of in-person shopping carnage

Small Business Saturday - a reaction to Black Friday designed to encourage shopping with smaller, local businesses, instead of spending with major chains or ecommerce giants. This is now heavily promoted by American Express

Cyber Monday - the ecommerce world's answer to Black Friday, before they realised there was no reason not to get in on the Black Friday action as well

Green Monday - not so much a given day as an industry understanding that on this day (the second Monday of December) online sales will tend to see a peak as buyers realise this is the last opportunity to order goods for delivery before Christmas (unless of course the postal workers are on strike)

Panic Saturday - the in-store version of Green Monday, being the last possible weekend shoppers can pick up goods in advance of Christmas

Do we really need all these designated shopping days?

The Problem With Black Friday

Though the origins are innocent enough, the concept today is anything but. In the US in particular Black Friday has become synonymous with violent behaviour, so much so that there's even a website dedicated to monitoring the death toll and injury count of Black Friday related incidents. It's pretty sobering reading and hopefully not something we should fear over in Europe.

But beyond the in-person frenzied fighting, Black Friday is a problem because it promotes overconsumption as well as effectively forcing retailers to write off the days and weeks in the lead up to the main event. You can't very well expect customers to carry on about their business just days before they know all those prices will come crashing down. What kind of mug goes shopping for gifts in the week before Black Friday?

Now first up let's get one thing straight here. I am not against retailers using discounts and promotions to bolster sales. I work in marketing, of course I approve! There being a near-global day of discounting isn't per se a problem. It's more what Black Friday has become, that is.

Let's Talk About Sustainability

Overconsumption is a problem for the whole planet, not least of all because of the wide ranging implications of too many goods being produced, purchased and ultimately discarded. According to this report, deliveries of Black Friday purchases will generate over 429,000 metric tonnes of carbon emissions. That's over 435,000 flights between London and New York!

Of course, it's impossible to distinguish between goods being produced and consumed that cater purely to Black Friday and those that would have been bought anyway, but we do know that the numbers skyrocket at this time of year. The most savvy/evil retailers are pushing discounts and deals at us with such ferocity they can often seem hard to resist. After all who hasn't made an impulse purchase based on a price drop that they later regretted?

And with giant brands pushing so much marketing spend at this "event" how can those without any interest avoid it? We as consumers have this giant extravaganza of consumerism foisted upon us to such a degree that you could hardly blame people for falling into the "well if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" trap. But this only feeds the monster!

Peak Consumerism & The Tipping Point

The concept of “peak consumerism” refers to the point at which the demand for products and shopping becomes unsustainable. Consumers can be seen as a temperamental herd easily spooked into frenzied spending followed by periods of prolonged indifference. This has fuelled the proliferation of zero-hours contracts for seasonal workers brought in en masse for just a month or two of the year to fulfil the phenomenal sudden demand for orders of all varieties. How can a workforce of this scale be so transient without leading to deep societal problems?

Consumption by itself is vital to our economies but consumption of goods beyond one's necessities begins the path towards hyperconsumerism. This is the point at which we need to begin to think about the tipping point. Looking at total sales data, last year was the first time that online sales over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend dipped below the previous year. Does this indicate we have hit peak Black Friday, or was it an anomaly? We won't know until data for this year's weekend is compiled. But there has to be an argument that declining sales over this weekend are a good thing for us all.

The demand for cheap clothes and other material goods has been deeply unsustainable for a good many years now, leaving many developing countries in a state of environmental and social ruin. The pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap philosophy isn't just unsustainable, it's unethical. Ultimately we all have a duty to be mindful of our spending and the impact it has.

Why Consumers and Retailers Are Tired of Black Friday

When you think about it, there's little real benefit to the consumer in condensing the peak shopping period into a limited window where you're having to compete with everyone else. We live in a world where we really don't need to be queuing outside shops for our goods, essential or otherwise. Nor do we need to be poised by our laptops or phones for an arbitrary time slot within which to punch in our credit card details.

Of course there are many retailers who benefit from inflated Black Friday consumer demand, but there are also plenty who find the experience to be counterproductive to business. In fact a staggering 85% of independent UK retailers claimed they were against Black Friday discounting. This is already their busiest period of the year, so why would they want to drop their prices?

In the UK and much of Europe it has been more traditional to see sales and shopping events in the aftermath of Christmas, precisely because demand has dropped. If the run up to Christmas is the busiest period of the year then it stands to reason that the period immediately after is going to be one of the quietest. That's the time to incentivise customers whilst also selling off excess unsold stock. That's a business model that makes sound logical sense.

Why therefore have we adopted this American model that's centred around a holiday we don't even celebrate? The blame lies squarely with one particular tax dodging ecommerce retailer that takes its name from a South American river. And we have to accept this particular behemoth of a retailer isn't going anywhere soon.

Why We Should Stop Indulging in Mindless Shopping

This is a time of year when people are expected to spend more. It has become generally accepted that Christmas time is an expensive time of the year. There is a subtle expectation that you will buy gifts for others, even if you can’t afford it. We’re supposed to be celebrating and spending time with those close to us but somehow we're all busy feeding the coffers of greedy retailers.

There’s a lot of advertising that feeds us materialism. There are brands pushing expectations that they encourage us to live up to. There are constant messages that we should have the latest and the best. Why do we need 10 pairs of jeans when 2 will do? Why do our homes need multiple TVs? What was wrong with the old washing machine?

Of course gifting is nice. Giving and receiving is a part of the festive experience and I don't want to suggest it shouldn't be. But there's a point at which that pressure you feel to spend the budget you've been allocated for the office Secret Santa has to be ultimately unnecessary and unwelcome pressure. If you're buying for the sake of buying, that's consumerism gone too far.

The Backlash

Younger generations in particular are now turning away from the excess and embracing minimalism. This is fuelled in part by people becoming more aware of the negative impact their spending has on the environment. But it's also a financial consideration as opportunities are more limited for young people, naturally worried not only for their own prospects but for the prospects of the whole planet.

As well as being Black Friday, the day has also been branded Buy Nothing Day, hijacked by an anticonsumerist movement that started in Canada. Their message is simple: by "detoxing" from shopping for a set 24-hour period, awareness can be raised about just how damaging mass consumerism has become. Their mantra of "Shop Less, Live More" has increasing resonance in a world where most of us know that recycling is good but reducing is better.

There have also been protests against some of BlackFriday/Cyber Monday's biggest advocates, from climate activists and workers unions. These protests are growing around the world in a movement against mass-consumerism and unsustainable commercialisation of the world around us.

A Way Forward

Rejecting Black Friday entirely may be a bit extreme for the average person on the street. After all, there are genuine bargains to be had and we probably do have gifts to buy. But we could all of us take a step back to consider just how much we are feeding the hyperconsumerist agenda. The volume of buying is where a potentially happy medium can be found. Buy less. Consume less. Think more.

If you are in a position to do so, you might wish to make a charitable donation in place of buying gifts for others. Alternatively, gift experiences that allow others to enjoy time with loved ones can mean less waste. The key is to be mindful of your spending and be cognisant of how your spending impacts the environment. This is a time of year where people are expected to spend money, and that’s ok. What's important is to be mindful of that spending and don't get bullied by brands into making purchases nobody needs. It doesn't matter how discounted that air fryer might be. You're never going to use it.