Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Celebrities like Madonna avoid shopping on Black Friday and willingly favor staying at home over going out to shop during a sales season.

The Black Friday myth has grown to become an urban legend. Whenever you mix legend with myth, the best buy is not to buy at all.

Buy only because something excites you, not just for the simple act of shopping.”― Karl Lagerfeld

Black Friday: The origin

The ultimate origin of “Black Friday” is as obscure as the adjective itself. The term has become generally known in the United States, being the Friday following Thanksgiving Day, and found its way to consumers worldwide like a rampaging virus.

Once a traditional family holiday, when parents took their children shopping after the season’s holiday bargains, now, Black Friday marks the start of the Christmas shopping period.

Researchers from the Eastern Illinois University depicted the traditional Black Friday scenario in An Analysis of Consumer Behavior on Black Friday.

With the “hype” of Black Friday, customers are exposed to a retail environment that can stimulate frustration and aggression.

Black Friday is traditionally known for:

• Customers waiting outdoors in cold weather waiting for the store to open;

• Heavily crowded stores;

• A limited amount of products available at a reduced price;

• Long checkout lines;

• The lack of advertised sale products.

According to History, “the use of the term Black Friday was first applied not to holiday shopping but the financial crisis: specifically, the crash of the U.S. gold market on September 24, 1869.”

However, the modern origin of Black Friday remains a mystery. We don’t know if it relates to grisly plantation owners buying slaves at a discount on the day after Thanksgiving; or to people running around in panic after the Stock-exchange crash in 1929.

Whenever you mix legend with myth, the best buy is not to buy.

Black Friday & Cyber Monday in the time of COVID-19

I always wondered why every time I did a google search about Black Friday from a historical point of view. I would end up with a couple of hits linking to the Black Death.

The Black Death was a devastating global epidemic of bubonic plague caused by an outbreak in China around 1334, afflicting millions and killing a third of the European population.

Google’s harbinger is terrifying because 2020 Black Friday comes at a moment of exponential growth in COVID-19 contagion.

However, 2020 Black Friday will be a completely different case study. The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has halted the world, and traditional shopping is paying the price.

Additionally, we are still following confinement measures as national authorities strive to bring down the contagion curve.

The Black Friday and Cyber-Monday concepts are intertwined. Hence, retailers took this opportunity to expand their online sales.

Was November a Cyber Month?

The socialite insight about Black Friday & Cyber Monday

Businesswoman and socialite Kylie Jenner always seems excited about Black Friday on her Twitter:

So excited for my Black Friday sales!! My biggest sales of the year start tomorrow…

Madonna, on the other hand, remains calm while she goes on sharing musical snippets via Twitter, seemingly unaware of the shopping frenzy.

Moreover, back in 2018, while many of us were carried away by the euphoria of Black Friday. Unmindful of that, Madonna sat quietly at her 18th-century palace in Lisbon, Portugal.

The pop diva even chose to share with her social media followers how she spent her Black Friday.

In a video post shared on her Instagram account, Madonna wrote: “Spending Black Friday with Bach and Mercy James.”

In the recording, her daughter is peacefully playing the piano while Madonna records the session.

“Whoever said that money can’t buy happiness simply didn’t know where to go shopping.”— Bo Derek

What Science says about Black Friday & Cyber Monday

An Analysis of Consumer Behavior on Black Friday emphasizes human emotion and behavior during Black Friday.

This research depicts the Black Friday consumer behavior phenomenon and provides valuable quantified insights based on individual customer behavioral observations.

The analysis shows how people's negative feelings or deviant behaviors are potentiated during this season: anger, anxiety, distress, irritability, aggression stand out from the list mentioned above.

I would also highlight the insight about the “relationship between the presence of shopping companions and the influence on a shopper’s choice to purchase an item.”

Peer-shopping seems to have a clear impact on our self-control mechanism.

Shopping also reveals how competitive we are when the “happiness Trifecta” in your brain: dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin kicks in.

For further insight on this topic, please check this article: The Influence of Others: The Impact of Perceived Human Crowding on Perceived Competition, Emotions, and Hedonic Shopping Value.

The authors further explain how “human crowding has been considered a driver of negative emotions, leading to unpleasant shopping experiences.”

“I always say shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist.”— Tammy Faye Bakker

Science backs Maddona’s decision to stay indoors at her mansion during Black Friday.

Even if relaxing at home to the sound of a piano concerto composed by Bach or Chopin might not offer a sale hunt exhilaration, looking at the numbers from the list, I would always choose Bach over a rioting crowd.

“Shopping is my cardio.”— Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City

Final Thoughts

Gareth English and Gary Pfeiffer have shared in their study, The Psychology of Black Friday, how there’s even a growing anti-Black Friday movement. Created by sales negationists and store owners deliberately staging antiBlack Friday events.

The authors share further insight, explaining how, as Black Friday becomes more established, these “backlash events” will more often occur.

Black Friday has lost its charm, and 2019 saw the rise of a new shopping day of the year — Saturday, December 21, also known as Super Saturday!

Thus, we should be mindful of all the subliminal conditioning around Black Friday and similar events.

Nevertheless, if you feel the urge to buy, please search for Bach on Spotify, or go cyber-shopping.

Play it safe — shop from home.

“Shopping is better than sex. If you’re not satisfied after shopping, you can make an exchange for something you really like.” — Adrienne Gusoff

Rui Carneiro is a graduate of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto. A teacher and life-coach specialized in strategic communication and self-development.

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