How Black Friday became one of the biggest shopping days of the year

Thanksgiving is known for the family get-togethers, massive meals, and football.

But after people empty their shopping bags with groceries, some make room for shopping finds on Black Friday.

Retailers now use psychological tools to encourage people to ditch the family and Thanksgiving leftovers and instead find the nearest mall.

Shoppers now expect long lines and huge sales on Black Friday. 

The day after Thanksgiving could now be considered a major shopping holiday, but it didn’art out that way.

Marvin Karlins, a professor in the Department of Information Systems and Management at the University of South Florida, said the term originated in 1869 after the market went into panic from plummeting gold prices.

Then in the 1960s, police in Philadelphia started using the term to describe chaos from tourists and early holiday shoppers.

“Our marketing people are very clever,” Karlins said. “In the United States, they saw a way to turn this into a positive in the 1980s and that’s when people started to look at Black Friday as being a potential marketing tool to get people out and shop.”

Now Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Karlins said people experience a level of pride when they are the first to secure a special price on what stores call ‘doorbuster deals.’  

“It does have a tremendous crowd mentality to it, and we’ve seen this in psychology over the centuries,” Karlins said. “I think that the marketing community has done an effective job of making it almost patriotic. Let’s keep America’s economic things strong and here’s a chance to go out and get some gifts at a good price.”

While many stores are physically closed on Thanksgiving day, many stores are now starting their sales even earlier. 

Axios reports Amazon, Best Buy and Target kick off a week before the holiday and Walmart is holding two sale events this month. 

These sales even apply to online shopping where Aaron Norton, a professor in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy at USF, said shoppers take advantage of this online shopping as it brings instant gratification.

“But when it’s so quick and easy and it’s at our disposal, it’s in the palm of our hands,” Norton said. “Then the effort involved is reduced.”

Norton said he even fell victim to the hype of Black Friday.

“I would never would have thought like a year ago that I would want to have a pen with a meteorite embedded into it,” Norton said. “But it was like the idea that wait a second, this meteorite landed here forever ago and it’s older than the planet Earth.”

Retailers use an idea called the scarcity principle, Norton said. It’s when retailers will give the impression that there’s a limited number of items and shoppers could be one of the special people who get it.

“Don’t miss out because they’re gonna go quickly and that tends to get people to feel like they’re getting a really good deal because they want to feel sometimes special or accomplished,” Norton said.

Michael Snipes, an economics professor at USF, said Black Friday is a test of how marketing professionals use psychology to play on consumer behavior.

“It does kind of speak to that if we’re seeing these firms kind of voluntarily lowering their prices. Then that means that they always had the ability to lower their prices,” he said “They just chose not to.”

Black Friday shoppers might not just utilize the deals on others but also get the deals for themselves.

Norton said shoppers may feel more inclined to spend extra money during Black Friday to utilize the good prices and ensure the best gifts for their loved ones.

“Some people like to express their love by showing somebody that they took the time, effort, and intention in order to find that perfect special thing that they know that that one individual would truly love and appreciate,” Norton said. “Then it’s very rewarding when that person opens that gift and they see that look on their face and the amazement, it feels good to be generous.”

If you plan on participating in the busy shopping day, Norton recommends creating a budget to take advantage of the many Black Friday sales.