Did anybody notice the Christmas decorations and merchandise stocked in the major craft stores back in June? How about the intermingling of The Monster Mash and Jingle Bells on store soundtracks back in October?
If it seems to you like the holiday shopping season is coming around earlier and earlier, you are right. Retail trend watchers see a pattern of lengthening of the holiday merchandise sales periods by many retailers over the last few years.
What does this mean for us consumers?
- Black Friday is not the end all, be all, super deal day that it once was. As retailers lengthen their holiday sales pushes, they are offering blockbuster deals earlier to us consumers to capture our holiday gifts dollars out of the gate. Each retailer is trying to beat the other to the punch and, therefore, the creep of Christmas season into fall. According to Adobe Digital Index, the largest single day price drop on items will occur from the Sunday to Monday BEFORE Thanksgiving. Also, online prices will largely hit their rock bottom on Thanksgiving Day, not Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
Check out a this one of many similar headlines from many news outlets.
Consumers Find More Opportunities to Shop Ahead of Black Friday
- Thanksgiving is no longer a “Most Businesses Give Employees a Work Break” Day. I personally loathe this trend, because we all need some time away from the work grind. For some people, this has been the only true day away that they get. More and more major retailers are jumping on the bandwagon of opening for at least part of Thanksgiving Day. I like a bargain as much as the next person, but not at the expense of someone else getting a day to rest.
- Setting and sticking to a holiday spending budget has become more important than ever. With the prolonged advertising frenzy, it is easy to get sucked into to starting to buy things in early November (not to miss out) and to continue all the way through December. Snagging bargain, after bargain, can mean broke, broke, broke come January.
With the rapid changes in the ways retailers market for the holidays, we are sure to see continuing movement away from single blockbuster bargain days (Black Friday) to extended super sales periods.
I love budgeting, now i budget everything, it’s crazy! These are really great tips. I don’t shop on Black Friday simply because I can’t. Huge crowds freak me out. Plus it’s usually really cold in the mornings. I stick to cyber Monday & I always have a plan of attack.
You are not alone in not liking the crowds. I am right there with you.
I agree that it’s a shame that the sanctity of Thanksgiving is dwindling, but I must say, it’s nice to get Christmas shopping done before so that Thanksgiving and December can be more enjoyable. That could be just me though; I do listen to Christmas music unashamedly as soon as the weather gets cold (regardless of how early in November that is)
Thanks for the post!
Thanks so much for hopping over and sharing.
I think the Black Friday “deals” have been available ahead of time for several years now. The only difference is that stores have started advertising them that way even sooner. I say this because my husband and I have coincidentally done some before-and-during Black Friday comparison shopping for years now, and found very little differences. (The only real differences seem to be some of the door busters — and I’m not sure those will even be any different this year based on the ads I’ve seen.)
That would make a great post with some specific item comparisons before and during.
I steer clear of crowds and shop online myself. However it seems odd now that it is so spread out.
Seems like businesses depend more and more heavily on holiday buying each year.
I don’t quite understand the Black Friday phenomenon. I prefer shopping online because I can’t stand chaotic crowds and Black Friday seems like a crazy mess of epic proportions. I’m glad the deals are moving online more and more.
Me too!