Some things get so far gone they come home again. So it is with early Christmas shopping.
The day after Thanksgiving was always big for the shopping season. After all, it was a weekday when nearly everyone had off of work. Something happened within the last 30 years in which Black Friday became a mania. People would line up hours early outside the stores, which would offer deals. Soon, many were lining up the night before — that is, Thanksgiving night. The doorbuster sales always went poorly in a few places, with shoppers assaulting one another in pursuit of that must-have gift.
Then, stores decided that if folks were willing to get in line after dinner on Thanksgiving, why not open the doors on Thursday night too? This, of course, led to lines forming earlier in the day, which meant that Thanksgiving was disappearing and a weekend-length shopping holiday was replacing it.
The shopping holiday expanded on the other end too. First, there was Cyber Monday. This made sense in the early aughts when people were far more likely to have high-speed internet at the office (which they would return to on Monday) than at home. When high-speed home internet became ubiquitous, Cyber Monday expanded into Cyber Week and beyond.
But now, thanks to the tendency of mass consumerism to expand and to the coronavirus, this annual shopping holiday has expanded even more. Walmart will start its Black Friday sales on Nov. 4, the day after Election Day. And it will be both online and in person. Some stores are basically shifting all of their holiday shopping deals to online sales.
What does this mean? It means that the giant blob of this annual shopping holiday grew to obscure Thanksgiving, but now, it’s spreading out so wide and thin that Thanksgiving is reemerging. Very few people will be tempted to spend any part of Thanksgiving Day at or outside a store. Even the following day might remain a day for family — or outdoor hikes.
That’s something to give thanks for.
