You already know what day it was yesterday. It’s Friday—the unofficial gateway to the weekend. But this isn’t just any Friday. Yesterday was Black Friday, the grand carnival of discounts, mega bargains, low prices, and the immediate disappearance of your freshly credited salary.
There was a time when the world counted down to this day. People camped outside shopping malls, filled their carts in advance, all in the hope of catching unbelievable deals. But ask yourself—is Black Friday still worth the hype? Has its charm faded? Let’s trace its journey.
The phrase Black Friday actually dates back to 1869, and it had nothing to do with shopping. It was born on Wall Street. Two speculators attempted to manipulate the gold market. Their plan crashed. Gold prices collapsed, the economy spiralled into chaos, and newspapers branded the day Black Friday.
Jump to the 1950s, and the term took on a new meaning. Thanksgiving ended, crowds poured into stores, and retailers were stormed. The name stuck, symbolising frenzied buying. For years, Black Friday ruled the world of discounts—24 intense hours of blink‑and‑you‑miss deals.
Look at the records: in 2010, Black Friday generated 7–8% of the entire annual U.S. retail sales. Shoppers spent $11.4 billion in malls and physical stores. A single day dominated the retail landscape.
Then came Amazon. It introduced Prime Day in July—and the game changed. Every big retailer rushed to launch competing discount events. Suddenly, sales stopped being seasonal. You didn’t need to wait till November. That blender you eyed? It would be on sale in July, or August, or whenever Amazon decided. And just like that, Black Friday became one sale among many.
Then arrived the pandemic. Lockdowns sealed people indoors. Online shopping transformed from convenience to survival. From 2020–2023, Black Friday foot traffic plunged. Meanwhile, online purchases exploded—and that shift never fully reversed.
Today, every week is a sale week: spring sale, end‑of‑season sale, festival sale, monsoon sale, back‑to‑school sale, birthday sale, even “Amazon forgot to tell you” sale. We are trapped in a never‑ending discount loop.
Marketers call it promotion fatigue—and it’s very real. When everything is always discounted, nothing feels special. A sale loses its excitement when it becomes routine. In fact, many “discounts” aren’t even real. Check prices from six months ago—you may find them lower. Around 30% of Black Friday deals are artificially inflated. Prices are raised beforehand to make the discount look larger.
Tech accessories are the most common victims. “Limited stock” is rarely limited. Bundles masquerade as bargains. “Free shipping” is just the shipping you already had. Meanwhile, the economic pressures on retailers are massive: inflation, tariffs, shipping fees, rising wages, and tight margins. They can’t afford genuine 60–70% markdowns across their entire inventory.
So they adopt selective discounting. One or two headline deals—a TV, a laptop, a gaming console—to lure you in. Everything else remains near full price. Those mythical store-wide clearance discounts? They’re fantasies now.
So is Black Friday still alive? Surprisingly, yes.
It still generates billions. Online traffic hits new records every year. Retailers still rely on it to ignite the holiday shopping season. But the magic has dimmed. The excitement has been overshadowed by apps, algorithms, and endless sales.
The discounts didn’t vanish.
The thrill did.
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