- Forty-five percent of Black Friday shoppers will likely be young people, ages 18 to 29. That's also the age group that's been most brutalized by the economy. Thanks to the combined blows of the Great Recession, the housing crisis, and the student debt crisis, their household wealth is in shambles. Entering the post-2008 labor market probably did permanent damage to their future earning prospects.
If the quest for Black Friday deals seem tinged with a bit of manic desperation, well, maybe it's because most Americans have reason to be at least a little desperate.
Retail weeks seem to be broken up into two categories, either you have volume weeks or margin weeks. Volume weeks are major holidays. If you buy you pants during any of the volume weeks they are always going to be 40% off maybe 50% but roughly the same amount. If you have a sudden emergency and buy them during a margin week, well fuck you pay the sticker price. The internet has kind of taken a bite out of that model but even a online company like Duluth will only price their underwear at the 15$ point a few times a year (vs 22 normal). Black Friday, its basically the last volume shopping week of the year. The last round of major sales and following a huge drought from labor day all the way through the days before Thanksgiving. If you need to replace clothes, or a toaster or maybe buy more underwear anytime after labor day this week is your last good opportunity. Prices are going to be at one of the lower points of the year. There may be better sales later, but its not guaranteed and the high demand stuff will have run out probably till early Feb or for clothes till next season. For the true bargain hunter its always a cat an mouse game between retailers and consumers. For a couple years consumers did great as the internet was becoming a thing and people were able to front run deals. Retailers wised up but people have gotten better at price comparison and coupon stacking as well. Tools like CamelCamel and websites like www.slickdeals.com help you find a verify that you are getting a good deal easily. But even for a casual its a good time to stock up on Christmas gifts and replace items that are damaged and worn. I'm sure a lot of people get carried away and buy shit they don't need, but with online shopping I've been able to mostly just buy things that I already needed and have just held out on buying. The black Friday Walmart riots make no sense in this day and age, I can get the same damn deal those people fought over delivered to my house without even putting pants on. Its gotta be something about the scarcity mentality that makes people go feral. The presence of black Friday is probably another poverty trap for people on the margins. If you make good money you dont really care about waiting a month or two to spend it. You also probably also have enough extra pants and underwear to defer replacement. If you live pay check to paycheck you either get nailed by high prices or high credit card interest. Pick your poison. That's probably that biggest realy negative impact of the black friday model. My tally so far: 1 Instant pot Ultra: 85$ (180) 1 Nintendo Switch $180 (300) 2 Switch games $90 (120) 1 Car Seat $120 (200) 1 Pack and play $25 (50) 1 Cast iron Crock pot for bread making 18 (Probably wouldn't have bought it otherwise) In case you are wondering I missed the Duluth underwear deal they came down to about 12 bux a pair after coupon stack. I maybe Ill try to claim warranty on the existing pairs instead. Still considering buying another couple pairs of darn toughs, and a replacement lined jacket.
I'm not sure if anyone is buying anything the can't afford not to have. To paint a mindless consumer holiday about large t.v.s and electronics as a class struggle is a little bit of a stretch in my opinion. Ill concede some people may desperately need a new appliance due to one being completely broken but I cant imagine thats even 1% of shoppers today. If it was tinged with this manic desperstion the journalist is stretching to see then I suppose we'll see some old fashion stampedes and tramplings of the late 90s and 2000's. Maybe, I'm just sick of articles finding excuses to paint my generation as helpless, fucked, and victims.
1) Americans expect to spend about $850 on Christmas this year. 2) Americans historically put over $1000 on credit cards every year. 3) Three quarters of respondents say they failed to properly budget for the holidays. 4) Same link - fully a quarter of those responding said it would take more than six months to pay off the balance. The argument of the article is that the phenomenon of "Black Friday" is an engineered device designed to prompt consumers into over-spending. I'll say this - the guys I know who sweat money the most are also the guys I know posting about Black Friday crowds on Facebook. I mean yeah - Park Place sent me an email this morning letting me know they've got a "Black Friday Special" on a used McLaren 650S. But ain't nobody training McLaren dealers how to deal with shopping riots via muthafuckin' VR.
People being dumb enough to put themselves in debt over things they don't really need is what i was getting at. Thats not a economic issue in my opinion. More of a lack of managed expectations even though thats a bit cruel to say. Im not really sure why your response was at me though. I dont see where it adresses anything i said. I admit to consistently being a bit daft though.
What's your dumbness threshold though? You're making the standard mid-20s I-got-mine argument: "I'm too smart to be fooled by this claptrap, caveat emptor, JohnGalt4EVR." But if it requires more smarts to avoid predation than it did 20 years ago the level of predation has gone up, QED. And if more of your society is falling victim to that predation, there will be more strain on society, QED. So even if you're too clever to blow three paychecks on a flat panel you don't need, you're living in a society where there's less money to go 'round 'cuz too much of it is in unnecessary flat panels. At the end of the day, retail has become more seasonally predatory. It's probably because it works. Your argument is that this is not an economic issue; bankruptcy laws are such that companies only have nine months to emerge from Chapter 11. With 80% of retail receipts coming between Thanksgiving and New Years, the very timing of corporate lending is now predicated on Black Friday. And people don't really think about that. Thus, the reason I posted the article.
I dont see what kind of smarts it requires to be fiscally responsible after a certain point. I dont think atlas shrugged is the pinacle of truth either. I have a hard time seeing it as predation when people are willinging throwing themselves to the wolves. What changes would you like to see? I can see the necessity for shoes and clothes that are cheaper but what should be done about that?
I suspect my scorn at Black Friday and sales in general is somewhat rooted in my ability to afford necessities and standard luxuries. It's easy to watch prices and track different sales when I can afford to not get the best price. Articles like this also make me a bit protectionist.