Don’t Buy Into the Hype: Black Friday from a former retail associate’s perspective

In Los Angeles, Black Friday starts early. Retail chains and stores open as early as Thursday afternoon to lure in shoppers. As the holiday season is fast approaching, Black Friday marks the end of Thanksgiving and the beginning of the holiday shopping season.

Early reports for this season’s Black Friday sales have already been released. According to USA Today, software firm Adobe predicts that 1.7 billion dollars will be spent within the duration of the 24-hour period. That’s a lot of cash to spend for the holidays.

Black Friday to bring in billions of dollars for retail industry

However, there are two secrets about Black Friday madness for those fashion shoppers out there.

Firstly, you don’t need to wait until actual Black Friday to shop. You typically have more than just a 24-hour window to shop these deals.

The interesting part about this is that although most people choose Thursday and Friday to shop their favorite retailers, it’s very likely that those “special sales” being shopped have been available all month long. Any sales or associates for retail chains will know the truth: not much changes sales-wise on the actual day of Black Friday.

There may be additional sales and a couple of more percentages off for “select items,” however for the most part the sales were available long before Black Friday.

If you scope H&M’s website, their banner even reads, “Why wait for tomorrow?” with their online offer promoted of clothing starting from 4.99 dollars. Urban Outfitters also already offers 30 percent off of all sale items.

Additionally, stores typically keep their Black Friday deals even beyond that day. Michael Kors’ offer of 50-200 dollars off (depending on how much you spend) is available through November 30. Topshop is offering 50 percent off selected clothing for a five-day period, not just Black Friday.

Retailers offer Black Friday deals beyond the 24-hour period

Secondly, most of the deals you’re looking for are typically available online and in-store. As almost everything is digital these days, e-commerce has become more and more ubiquitous. If the Black Friday hustle isn’t your forte, it’s likely that the retailer you’re shopping from has identical deals online as well. Stores that are offering the same deals in-store as they are online include Forever 21, Topshop, Target, PacSun, Michael Kors and Nordstrom’s.

Los Angeles is one of the few cities that takes advantage of this fact. According to Deloitte’s annual holiday survey (as reported by the LA Times), 25 percent of shoppers said they spend more than 75 percent of their holiday budget through online shopping. Adobe also projects that 3 billion dollars will be spent on Monday, in addition to approximately 2.7 billion dollars that will be spent on Friday.

This is due to the fact that Black Friday is known to be over-hyped in America. According to a survey conducted for Ibotta as reported by Time, 65 percent of shoppers believe that “Black Friday is not as big of deal as it used to be.” Although this may ring true for certain retailers, the day still brings in approximately 5 billion dollars of spending for the holiday season.

Photo: Ray Bouknight