By Gabriel Brogan

Last November 28th, we gathered around tables with family and friends to enjoy a home-cooked meal and reflect on what we were grateful for. We spent a holiday among our loved ones, sharing our time and our food, purchasing nothing but perhaps plane tickets to see one another. And then, it was Black Friday. 

Drawn by the deals of 50, 60, 70, 80 percent off at every major retailer under the sun, 197 million people across the country flocked to stores online and in person the Friday after Thanksgiving. According to NPR, shoppers spent a record-breaking 10.8 capital-b-Billion dollars online alone. This is good, right? It certainly is a lot of money flowing back into the economy, as big-brain finance bros may tell you. However, there is a darker, or perhaps just more exploitative, side of Black Friday. 

Before delving into the finer points of this Black Friday takedown, it’s important to note the holiday’s history of violence. In 2011, cops rained pepper spray on North Carolinian shoppers, injuring 20 and sending one young asthmatic girl to the hospital. In 2012, two Floridians were shot for their parking spot in a busy shopping-mall lot. Another two people were shot in a NJ parking lot in 2016, one of these shootings fatal. On that same day, another parking-lot squabble (this one at Walmart) turned deadly when a man was shot for reprimanding another customer in San Antonio. 

These are just a few of the gruesome Black Friday incidents which crop up in the headlines every few years, but these casualties are not the heart of the issue with Black Friday. After all, every holiday tends to see an increase in fatalities, and Black Friday can’t compare to the United States holiday-killer champion, the 4th of July (The national safety council reports a 500-700 increase in road-related deaths on Independence Day).

So why then, is Black Friday bad? For the answer, we must look to the Holiday’s history. According to Brittanica, Black Friday originated in the 1950s in Philadelphia, a time when America was the largest producer in the world, and factories were, in short, making a lot more things than consumers could buy. Black Friday arose as a natural remedy for this issue, an annual tradition of ritual consumption devised by Philadelphia department stores when they noticed a natural increase in holiday shoppers the day after Thanksgiving. The holiday got the name “Black Friday” from local police departments, who, resulting from the flocks of suburbanites, had to control crowds, catch shoplifters, and work overtime. 

In the interest of your time, dear reader, I won’t go too in depth into postwar US economic history. Here is a summary: What happens when an economy produces far more than it needs? The people have to buy far more than they need. Black Friday arose as a means to remedy this issue, and people loved it so much they regularly shoot each other in parking lots out of sheer excitement to shop these days. 

If Black Friday is not already leaving a bad taste in your mouth, consider reflecting on your own Black Friday spending. It isn’t a black and white issue. Black Friday deals can make holiday shopping for loved ones significantly cheaper. I’m not arguing against the deals. There is a lot of money to be “saved”. But in the wise words of Mr. Painton, “you have to spend money to save money.” And that is the center of the Black Friday lie: people go out and buy things they don’t need (or maybe don’t even want that much) just because it’s Black Friday. These are called “impulse buys,” and, according to Statista, Americans spend 150 dollars a month on them. 

If you spend 300 dollars on Black Friday on purchases that would otherwise cost you 1000 dollars, did you save 700 dollars? No. You spent 300 dollars. And while not every Black Friday purchase will sit gathering dust after a few months, some of them will. Maybe the majority of them will.

Do I want you to stay home on Black Friday, sitting on your hands while everyone else rushes the retailers, both online and in-person? No. Shopping is fun, you get a rush, and you get some shoes along with it. There is, however, a way to hack it on Black Friday that allows you to participate and come away with things that you really do need. 

In the month or so before Black Friday, plan your purchases. New winter coat? Fancy sunscreen that is usually 20 dollars? Gifts for the family? Things you would buy anyway, plan to buy on Black Friday to take advantage of those sweet deals. If the 20 dollar sunscreen is already in your monthly budget, and you buy it for 5 bucks on Black Friday, then you did (kind of) save. 

And finally, I implore you reader, to be aware of the forces at play. Be aware that buying things releases dopamine that will not last, be aware of the marketing muscle, the bright colors and overstimulating displays, the attention-hacking, the waste and carbon emissions and children on sewing machines in developing countries, everything that goes into you making that purchase. Before you do buy, reflect on these factors. Ask yourself if the money you’re about to hand over is truly worth it, if it wouldn’t be better put towards something else. 

And then, if you’re still sure, buy it.