Tis’ the season for trees going up and prices going down. Although Black Friday has been a term since the 1870’s, it was only coined a century later to represent the shopping frenzy following Thanksgiving day. However, this year, Black Friday deals barely budged and left avid shoppers reminiscing about long lines and shopping sprees.

Black Friday prices used to be so low that people camped outside of stores and fought each other flat screen TVs, getting arrested in the process. Seems dystopian looking back, but from the wise words of Madonna, I guess we really do live in a material world! With the growing popularity of e-commerce and economic challenges, retailers got away with sales as little as 5% off. Some companies even raised prices just before Friday to make it look like they went down. In fact, Target, the 7th largest retailer in the U.S., was caught advertising Black Friday deals and not changing prices at all. A video on Tik Tok revealed a $649.99 sale price pulled back only to reveal it was exactly the same regularly. It now has over 40M views and nearly 4M likes. 

While the convenience of online shopping may have played a role, inflation and lingering effects of the pandemic hold the biggest blame. Shipping delays and shortage of products coupled with pricier materials and transport have retailers passing the extra costs on consumers—even during the holidays. 

So if you missed out on Black Friday deals this year, don’t be disappointed. There’s still plenty of time to complete your holiday shopping without the added stress of Black Friday.