There are few things that motivate people to wake up in the middle of the night willfully, but one of those things is unquestionably large savings. Cyber Monday and Black Friday are the biggest motivators of the year. According to the Business Insider, “Cyber Monday shattered records this year.” But even with a rise in Cyber Monday sales and decline in Black Friday sales, the highest discount event this year was on Thanksgiving.
Some people refuse to go out the Friday after Thanksgiving at 2 a.m. to snag a stellar deal, and therefore wait for the following Monday to get a great deal online. According to howstuffworks.com, Cyber Monday originated in the minds of a marketing team that was part of the National Retail Federation in 2005. As technology became the norm, so did Cyber Monday. The newest Cyber Monday trend is mobile sales. According to TechCrunch.com, Walmart indicated that 70 percent of its sales came from mobile devices and PayPal indicated a 43 percent increase in mobile sales.
For student Marchely Martinez, Cyber Monday shopping is not only necessary, but a quirky family tradition.
“My family and I pick out what we want to buy online. My dad wakes us up around 5 a.m. and we grab our laptops and surf the web to snag insane deals," Martinez said. “This year I got a lot of clothing I wouldn’t normally be able to afford. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s fun. We make breakfast and spend time with each other.”
While billions of dollars circulate the vast world of technology, people still decided to spend money on a different day: Thanksgiving. Yahoo News reported that the favorite day to shop this year was indeed turkey day. The sales were bigger, the lines were longer and the wallets were skinnier. Companies were urgent to slash their prices in order to get a jump on holiday shopping. Believe it or not, Thanksgiving is not soon enough. There is even buzz of having a cyber sale the Monday before Thanksgiving. With the success this year on Thanksgiving Day sales, corporations are looking to push the envelope even further.
The trick to having a successful holiday shopping spree is to closely pay attention to which items are on sale, on which days. Websites such as Deal News and the actual Black Friday and Cyber Monday event sites show which items have the best sales. Deal News suggests that clothing and shoes have bigger sales on Cyber Monday, while electronics, TVs and appliances have bigger bargains on Thanksgiving or Black Friday. Being aware of these sale trends and comparisons allows shoppers to have a successful holiday shopping event. The days to compare and consider shopping are Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Saturday before Christmas. Those are the biggest savings of the holiday season.
Student Katrina Ramos detests the idea of the sale creeping beyond Thanksgiving.
“I just think that it’s terrible that people feel they have to shop on Thanksgiving and that they have to buy these items that are frivolous. It’s so greedy in my opinion,” Ramos said. “I just want a holiday that doesn’t focus on materialism. These are family holidays.”
Though these sales prevent the panic of pre-Christmas shopping, it does impede on the other holidays before Christmas. For those who avoided this chaos altogether, there is still the last minute Saturday before Christmas sale. These deals will be just as big as the Cyber Monday deals promoted this year.
nnigro@ramapo.edu
