The traditional holiday annually recurring on November 25th; Black Friday brings thousands of Americans cramming into stores right when the clock hits midnight to indulge in extremely low discounted items. As part of a Thanksgiving tradition many families finish their dinner and go straight to the stories no matter the timing.

But has the popularity of Black Friday changed over the years?

During 2020 also known as the Covid year most retail shops were closed due to lack of social distancing. From this and the years prior it looks like Cyber Monday is making an increased amount of money in comparison of Black Friday. Cyber Monday seems to be the new Black Friday’s replacement.  From the new generation of young shoppers they are finding that Cyber Monday deals are more discounted.  From being able to order from home, Cyber Monday is slowly taking over. But this doesn’t mean that Black Friday hasn’t completely died.

Carter Pugh, a Skyline High School senior, has a different insight about Black Friday; not being a shopper but having to be a worker that day.

“I worked on Black Friday,” said Pugh. “I personally still think the popularity hasn’t died down. I worked 4-8 and we obviously got more customers on a daily basis. It was consistently busy all day.”

Black Friday is still the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States. But from 2020 there has been a 9% decrease in shoppers while the numbers from Cyber Monday are continuously rising with years to come.

A contributing factor is the decrease in the public’s realization of the list of harms from this holiday. Climate change rapidly worsening every year overconsumption and non sustainable items being one of the causes. Black Friday encourages shoppers to purchase items not needed and mesmerize with one in a year deals. Most Black Friday items are packaged in plastic and end up in landfills.

Most people think Black Friday is where you save money but this isn’t true. Between lower and upper income class the average shopper spends five hundred dollars on this day. . A tactic shops use to trick customers into thinking they got a new deal is pricing items unnecessarily high beforehand so when priced reasonably buyers think they are getting a good deal.

Black Friday is the day when Christmas season shopping officially begins. This is very good for retailers because companies are able to get rid of their old inventory as new shipments for Christmas come in. This last quarter of the year for companies is when they make the most profit but at the disadvantage to the public.

The public over consumes this day while dealing with not such good conditions. A general trend during this holiday is shoppers waiting in the cold just to save a couple of breaks and violence outbreaking between customers. This only helps with more profit and interest towards Cyber Monday and losing customers for Black Friday.