KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Retailers are battling it out for your dollar, putting the tradition of Black Friday at stake. As many stores are offering great deals earlier than ever this year.
The holiday shopping season is becoming more and more cut-throat. Walmart is already matching other stores Black Friday sales. Find a cheaper item somewhere else, and they’ll give you that price.
Amazon began offering Black Friday deals last week. And tomorrow, Zona Rosa begins a new tradition — Orange Wednesday — where stores will offer Black Friday deals two days early.
With hundreds of stores planning to open on Thanksgiving this year, the line is becoming blurred.
Is Black Friday a thing of the past?
One economist at Rockhurst doesn’t think so. He says for many families, Black Friday is an annual tradition engrained in our culture — staying up all night together to go Christmas shopping. He doesn’t see that going away. But businesses also know you only have so much money to spend, so by offering some Black Friday deals early, they hope you will spend your money with them by shopping before — and after — Thanksgiving.
And of course, every business is trying to outsell the other.
“Their concern would be if there are other retailers starting their sales before them, and they’re getting to the consumer earlier, and so they each want to get to the consumer first, and so whoever might start the sale earlier will have first crack at the consumer,” Jeremy O’Connor, PhD, Rockhurst Economist said.
O’Connor adds that more than 40 percent of people will shop for Christmas gifts online this year. That’s what’s driving these early Black Friday deals since it’s much cheaper to ship an item straight to you rather than stock that item on the store shelf.
6am SOT
Jeremy O’Connor, PhD, Rockhurst Economist
32:14 I think in some ways they are getting the best of both worlds. Their able to take advantage with some of the sales before and after but the excitement of Black Friday doesn’t seem to have diminished so they get both.
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Most retailers are only offering early Black Friday deals online – since it’s much cheaper for them to ship an item directly to you rather than pay employees to stock it on a store shelf.
Jeremy O’Connor, PhD, Rockhurst Economist
29:37 You might actually be able to get a better price on certain items online earlier than on Black Friday. I know we found that at our house with Skylanders for $40 less online online earlier this week after we had already purchased it from the retailer. So we returned it to the retailer and kept the one we purchased online.
