Black Friday used to be fun, now folks would rather sleep in

NEW DELHI: For Max Frazier, shopping on Black Friday used to be one of his favorite annual traditions. On Thanksgiving, Frazier and his wife would scan through newspaper ads looking for deals on toys that they wanted to buy their grandchildren. They were excited to wake up early and line up outside stores at 4:30 a.m., running through their shopping game plan as they waited.

One year, one of Frazier’s granddaughters announced that she wanted a giant teddy bear she had seen at Target. So after Frazier and his wife found a Black Friday deal for it, they made sure to be some of the first people in line before the store opened, headed straight to where they knew the bears would be and scooped one up.

“When we were checking out, people were like, ‘Where did you get that bear?’” Frazier, a 67-year-old retired teacher, recalled. “We had fun loading it in the car. It was like having a new passenger with us as we were heading home. And it was only 10 bucks.”

Those days are a thing of the past. Frazier said he had not shopped on Black Friday in at least five years. It no longer feels like an adventure. He and his wife now sleep in on Friday mornings.

“Shopping has really changed,” he said, pointing out that most sales today occur online. “I guess we are a little nostalgic for the fun we used to have on Black Friday because that doesn’t exist anymore.” After The New York Times asked readers this week to share their thoughts about shopping on Black Friday, more than 75 wrote in, with a vast majority saying they were not planning to shop on the day. Many lamented that it no longer felt like a unique shopping event and that sales often continued into the new year. Others suggested supporting small businesses rather than big-box retailers, whether they offered sales or not, or avoiding shopping altogether by participating in “Buy Nothing Day.”

Liz Jarvis used to love Black Friday but has become disappointed by how it has changed over the years.

People used to dress up in holiday gear, she said, and drink coffee and chat while waiting in line at 7 a.m. — a reasonable hour to her. When stores opened, the staff would hand out coupons or prizes and make the day feel special — and yes, fun. She and her husband would finish all their shopping by noon and celebrate by going out to lunch.

But something began to shift. Stores started opening earlier and shoppers began arriving bleary-eyed in the middle of the night. “I remember a year when my husband and I got in line at Best Buy at 3 a.m.,” Jarvis, who lives in Livonia, Michigan, and works as a school board trustee, said in an email. “It was freezing. We took turns, with one of us holding our place in line, stamping our feet against the cold, while the other thawed out in the car until it was time to switch places. All because we needed a new TV.” When stores moved their sales to midnight and, eventually, online, announcing them right after Halloween, Jarvis, 61, said it stopped feeling fun. These days, she and her husband have found the deals less enticing. They also simply do not need as many things, Jarvis said. And while they did not have any plans to shop Friday, she said she hoped retailers would figure out how to make the day fun again.

Hayley Leibson was one of the few readers who wrote in to say that she “fiercely loves” Black Friday in its current form, despite describing herself as a person who “hates shopping” and wears the same outfit every day: jeans and a black T-shirt. All the sales moving online have been a boon; she prefers to shop from the comfort of her own home.

Leibson, 30, carries a Moleskine notebook with her and keeps a running list of all the things her family needs, she said, including personal care products, shoes, clothing and other items for her two children.

“On Black Friday, when those sales come up, I buy everything I’ll need for the entire year,” said Leibson, who lives in Mill Valley, California, and works in tech. She looks out for big-ticket items like mattresses, which tend to have large discounts on Black Friday. This year, she said, she was looking forward to buying some running shoes from Hoka.

“I have my list,” she said. “In the morning, I will just go on all of the websites and then just buy everything in one shot.” For others, the hunt for holiday discounts begins well before Black Friday.

Susan Cameron, who lives in Swan Valley, Montana, said she had been keeping an eye out for a discount on a Breville toaster oven for her son and his wife. She bought one from Amazon after she had seen a deal for $300 — $100 off the original price.

“I received it already because, you know, Black Friday apparently starts the week before Thanksgiving now,” Cameron, 57, said. “That saved $100 makes my budgeted holiday money go even further.”