In the United States, Thanksgiving Holiday is always on the last Thursday of November. The Friday immediately after Thanksgiving is traditionally called Black Friday (I have no idea why they call this day “Black Friday”). Black Friday is usually the biggest shopping day of the year and there are very big discounts and sales and deals on items and the newspaper is usually full of Black Friday ads.
Usually, stores open very early in the morning – 4AM and people are waiting in line – sometimes people have been camping out in front of the stores so they are the first one inside to take advantage of the sale and discounts on items.
This Black Friday 2010, I learned a good lesson on Queueing and Mob Mentality and I’ll be shopping online next time.
Black Friday 2010
This Black Friday, my wife and I decided to be courageous and act crazy like everyone else. Below is a picture I took at Wal-Mart.
Black Friday: A Lesson in Queues
We also went to Toys ‘r’ Us, which had really good discounts on items and a big after Thanksgiving sale. When we arrived, there was a long line outside and a long line inside. We decided not to wait in the line, but Toys ‘r’ Us applied a really good Queueing principle:
No customers entered Toys ‘r’ Us until a customer exited.
On the one hand, this approach prevents crowd-related violence and stampedes. On the other hand, it creates a very long line of customers waiting in the cold – but, as you can see from the fuzzy picture below – these are customer willing to wait in the cold, so Toys ‘r’ Us can take the risk and make customers wait.
It was 17 Degrees Fahrenheit outside and there were about 75 people waiting outside and several hundred customers waiting inside Toys ‘r’ Us. And, yes, that’s a police car by the entrance just in case a stampede starts over toys.
For your enjoyment, here’s a picture of a festive lady with a crazy hat at Wal-Mart.
Below are a few videos of Black Friday 2009 after Thanksgiving Sale – in one video, a stampede at Wal-Mart caused the death of a Wal-Mart employee.
Black Friday at Wal-Mart
Black Friday at Circuit City
Black Friday at Target
Black Friday Fight over XBox
Black Friday Fight over PS3
Black Friday at Best Buy
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This post was written by Pete Abilla | ||||
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I believe it is Black Friday because it’s when retailers turn from red ink (losses) to black ink (profits).
The queueing is interesting. People line up earlier and earlier, stores open earlier, so people line up earlier. My strategy is to stay at home.
Another interesting note is that this is one of the more profitable scams in retail. Prices are lowered on enough products (1%) that you think there are great deals. Anything else that’s x% off is most likely raised before it is then discounted. Shop today only because it is traditional and you enjoy it, not because you are looking for deals.
Yes, great point Jamie.
In fact, when we finally did get into Wal-Mart, it was very anti-climactic because not only were the toys we wanted gone, the toys that were left weren’t really “deals” – hardly worth the effort of all that waiting for a measly few dollars in savings.
Online for sure – thankfully we finished most of our Christmas shopping last week and just need a few items left which we got.
Christmas shopping hustle and bustle done. Now we get to focus on what Christmas is really about.