Why Retailers Should Switch To Regular Shopping Hours During The Black Friday Chaos

Black Friday is a major day where retailers make the most profit by putting items on extreme discounts or promoting new items for affordable prices. These retailers are looking to draw in a crowd on the fourth week of November. Consumers get up and prepare for Black Friday, while employees are stuck at work for the holiday’s. Walmart and major e-commerce retailers like Amazon make huge profits when Black Friday occurs because many shoppers get sucked into the ring of deals. Making consumers spend more and more money on their products. There has been a debate about whether online shopping or in-store shopping is better than one of another.

In America, Black Friday is a major shopping holiday for many booming businesses and small businesses that are just starting out. Stores like Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and Kohl's usually open up early on days like Wednesday and Thursday. These stores do this try to get more revenue before the holiday’s. Best Buy and Walmart want Black Friday shoppers come shop in their stores. “To compete with Amazon, Best Buy offered some of the most popular items in their stores exclusively” (Kimberly Amadeo). Many people go Black Friday shopping for the deals and thrill of all the crowds filing in the stores. Shoppers get up early in the morning to prepare themselves for the outrageous waiting hours. Making a big cup of coffee for the road or buying Starbucks along the way. Not to mention having their credit cards, saved up christmas money, checkbooks and debit cards for high dollar items.

What about the workers who have to stay overnight to arrange and stock items on the floor, and shelf? These workers are tired and worn out already, but now they have to make sure that the store that they work for is fully stocked with goods that Black Friday shoppers want and skip being home with their family or having alone time to enjoy the holidays. Employers are losing sales and employees because they want to put their company first and employees second and sometimes even third. Meeting the company’s sales demand is important, but employers should consider holding their employees needs on a higher standard.

When Black Friday sales first started employers would close their stores for Thanksgiving and let their employees have that day off to spend with family. Now employers do not care enough to even shut their stores down and let their employees have a peaceful Thanksgiving. Major retailers like: Walmart, Target and Macy’s shove the importance of sales down their employees throats and extend the number of days Black Friday goes on. Black Friday sales now occur on Thanksgiving day leaving employees no choice, but to work instead of spending time with their loved ones.

Retailers should resort to online shopping more and use regular store hours or irregular hours. Most Walmarts open at 6 a.m. and close at 12 a.m. and then there are the 24 hour Walmarts. Retailers who try to make extra profits start their Black Friday on the 27th of November, so customers will get a head start on doorbuster deals. This leads to employees not being able to go home and rest up for Thanksgiving and prep their holiday dinners. Online shopping would eliminate majority of workers getting up at the crack of dawn just to prepare for the chaos. Amazon is one of the top online retailers and the company makes plenty of profits from their online sales. Especially from Black Friday, “last year in 2018, Amazon made $6.22 billion in online sales and Thanksgiving day the retailer made $3.7 billion in sales” (Bill Bostock). That is 9.92 billion dollars in online sales! Many people are shopping online for deals because they want to avoid the huge crowds, and online shopping has better deals than walk-in stores. Amazon includes Prime Day on Black Friday which cuts the cost of shipping significantly and they also have online sales before Black Friday even starts.

Black Friday and Thanksgiving are the busiest shopping days for the stores, but foot traffic in stores are declining. Kimberly Amadeo reported that in 2018, traffic fell as much as 9 percent from 2017. In 2017, the number of people visiting stores was 4 percent lower than 2016. Adobe Systems estimated that online sales for Black Friday was 26.4 percent higher than in 2017. Online sales were up 18 percent in 2017. Between November 1 and December 24, online shopping grew 19.1 percent.

Online shopping sales has risen in the past years. People all over the world have turned to online shopping for many reasons; some being comparison shopping, more variety in selections, better deals, reviews from other shoppers, and saving time. Many people also like the thought of controlling the time that their packages arrive and the convenience of being able to pick the package up on a certain day. With comparison shopping, consumers want to compare the items price with another item, how many positive and negative reviews there are, and the quality of the item. Variety is the spice of life, so therefore many people want a massive selection of the same items, but different brands.

This will lead up to the deals and consumers will look for deals online that are better priced instead of going in an actual store. Reviews are a very important part of online shopping. Consumers want to know if their purchasing the right item for them, they want to know if that item is horrible or wonderful for them. Reviews are what help sells items for many large online retailers like Amazon and JD Multimedia. People today want to save time and energy by not having to get up, put clothes on and drive to a store for items they need or want. Now people can just sit back in their chair and order a variety of items, and have those items shipped to his or her house.

Consumers shop online for many reasons, but there is a difference between countries and generation groups. Baby Boomers to Generation X and Millennials feel that there are positive and negative outcomes when it comes to online shopping. “Reasons consumers shop online instead of stores: ability to shop 24/7, online has better deals, to save time, to avoid crowds, and the convenience of everything in one place” (Dave Chaffey). Negatives of online shopping would be consumers wanting to see and touch the item, they want to try the item out and is concerned about how the product looks.

Retailers should convert back to their regular hours for Thanksgiving and Black Friday because their customers are shopping more and more online. The sales are not in the stores anymore there online, consumers want deals and not have to drive their gas out of their vehicle every time they want to go to the store for items. Online is where the deals are at, so online is where the customers will go. Thanksgiving day is when stores should be closed because it shows respect towards the employees families. Many employees don’t get to spend Thanksgiving with their family because of work and other obligations that having to do with their jobs.