An American Thanksgiving is typified by copious amounts of succulent food and families and friends congregate in the spirit of community and compassion. Like marathon runners preparing for a daunting race, hundreds of families feast and lie in anticipation of Black Friday. Sustenance and a survival instinct is key to navigating a relentless onslaught of aggressive consumers. However, scenes of pandemonium while goods literally fly off shelves are no longer exclusively in stores. Cyber Monday ushers in a new dimension to our heightened commercialism at this time of year.
Inevitably, a jump from physical to virtual deal hunting has varying implications for both sides of the spectrum. A transition of online purchases will greatly reduce risk of broken bones and impaled eyeballs; battle wounds garnered from stampedes toward half price appliances. Yet, in return, we are bombarded with an unwavering stream of online bargains, most of which are difficult to navigate for even our emerging generation, who are well versed in the ways of the Internet. Furthermore, amidst a sea of questionable web advertisements and PayPal transactions, large corporations such as Walmart and Amazon.com reap rewards of a domineering online presence, leaving smaller businesses and speciality stores in their wake. Hefty costs of maintaining an effective online marketing campaign means for many, advertising on the Internet, let alone participating in Cyber Monday’s madness, is unfathomable.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday indicate only the beginning of an alarming trend. Catalog Spree dubbed Sofa Sunday, and Gap deemed their Monday sale as Merry Monday to remain consistent with the holiday spirit. While many would assume a clash would ensue between physical and virtual buying, future trends could indicate a symbiotic relationship developing between the two. Black Friday has long been engrained in American tradition as a steadfast festive ritual. America’s cultural fabric would be much less vibrant without a day devoted to society coming together under the foray for a lucrative price tag. Consequently, it is safe to say this robust display of materialism, which has become both reviled and dear to us all, is definitely here to stay. In fact, scouring hundreds of stores over a weekend and proceeding to feed our insatiable consumer appetites online will certainly provide a paradox of overstuffed stomachs and under stuffed wallets. A familiar epitome of the holiday season’s commencement.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
