The meaning of Black Friday

Millions of people went shopping over this past four-day weekend, and they spent billions of dollars, which in turn prompted speculation about the health of the consumers and the state of the economy. While the quick read on the strong shopper turnout and level of spending was viewed as a positive for the industry and the economy overall, there is a school of thought that suggests the opposite is true. For example, it is possible to view the intensified thirst for bargains on display among shoppers this year as an indicator of economic weakness as American’s are eager to celebrate Christmas but more desperate than ever to save money.

Clearly, retailers and the media have made it impossible to ignore Black Friday, and the shopping holiday has reached a proportion where it now exerts a sort of gravitational pull that many people find irresistible. Maybe it is the thrill of the hunt? Shoppers have become ever more strategic in their approach to Black Friday, treating their holiday shopping with the precision of a military exercise. Shoppers carefully pre-plan trips, develop strategies, identify targets and then employ the latest mobile technologies to coordinate movements while in the field.

These efforts are fueled by a marketplace that is inundated with advertising from retailers offering aggressive prices, limited-duration deals, bonus offers and early opening hours. The result is the type of long lines that require retailers to implement crowd control measures and to preprint store maps and publicize their existence showing the location of featured merchandise so as to avoid congestion in key departments.

These are not the actions of rational industry participants operating in a marketplace filled with confident consumers. Perhaps it is a counterintuitive, but might a more encouraging sign of overall consumer health been a softer Black Friday turnout and a reduced level of spending since that would be an indication consumers feel good enough about present and future economic conditions that it becomes less imperative to rise at 2 a.m. to wait in line for Target to open at 4 a.m. to buy a $298 Westinghouse 40-inch LCD TV?