Crowds, clothes, and sales: the three things commonly associated with the American tradition known as Black Friday. This year’s Black Friday was just like any other: there were excessive lines and great deals.
I started off at the Westfield Valley Fair Macy’s at around 12 p.m, and luckily shelves were filled with a variety of discounted clothes, makeup, and jewelry. I was surprised to see that there were minimal crowds, but I had attributed it to my slightly late arrival.
I decided to buy a lipstick set from Macy’s makeup and perfume section and was shocked by the prices. Despite great deals such as the ‘30%-40% off on dresses’ deal in the women’s clothing section, Macy’s had increased prices for beauty gift sets. There was an increase in the amount of luxury beauty gift set deals, with brands such as Dior and Channel offering $50 and under perfume and gift sets. I ended up purchasing a skincare set priced at $25, and a fragrance set which was $15.
I continued to not face any of the crowds typically associated with Black Friday, especially at Old Navy and Forever 21. I purchased many new tops, as well as accessories ranging from socks to hair ties. In fact, the only crowd-related inconvenience I faced were the long food-court lines, and the difficulty of obtaining a table.
This Black Friday was equally available for online shoppers, which might have been the reason for the lack of crowds. The deals were posted beforehand online, allowing customers to finish up their shopping before Black Friday even came. There was also an abundance of websites and articles which posted up-coming deals for Black Friday day, and this helped me prepare for shopping in person.
I was able to browse for some deals online too.I found clothes ranging from 15-60% off on the Yesstyle website, which wasn’t new because there were many flash sales on that website throughout the year. However, I ended up ordering a gray coat for 60% off from the Macy’s website instead. This was a great deal, and I’m glad that I was able to order the coat before going to the store.
The wave of online shopping was huge enough that the Black Friday online sales raked in a record breaking $9.12 billion dollars, according to Adobe. The 2022 Black Friday continued the tradition of shopping online rather than going in person. While there may have been fewer deals and higher prices, I still appreciated the accessibility of the tradition itself.