The Black Friday Scam

Every November, people start worrying about the event of the month, Black Friday. The shopping carts seem to grow exponentially as people add and add random things. Everything speeds up, everything is a competition where you have to be the first, you have to get the best. People take a day off and run around from mall to mall trying to find the best deals. The night of, videos fill everyone's phones, "2025 BLACK FRIDAY HAUL!!!" Scroll, scroll, scroll, but its never ending. People spend thousands on clothes, makeup, and appliances. Everyone scavenges for deals like hungry beasts but, has anyone taken a moment and slowed down to think?

From blackfriday.com

Everyone knows that Black Friday is the day to go shopping because that is the day that you will find the best deals, but is it really? Studies have uncovered again and again that stores do not give out their best deals on the day of chaos. A recent study by Which? examined the prices of products in the UK over a 12-month period, form May 2024 to May 2025. The analysts kept an eye on 175 different home, tech, and health products from different companies. At the end it was concluded that not a single item was at its lowest price during the Black Friday period. Although prices are evidently not truly decreasing, advertising and propaganda coerce customers into spending fortunes that they do not have. Every time you open a website during the Black Friday period, a huge alarm clock is shoved into your face, counting down the hours before your "ONLY FOR A LIMITED AMOUNT OF TIME," deals are no longer available. For course that is until you check the price of the jeans you bought right before the deal was over to what it's worth now, somehow the price is lower on a random day in February. 

Studies that looked into John Lewis products found that 94% of the time items were cheaper or the same price during another period in the year. Specific products that were listed in the article include the Samsung Jet Bot Robot, a vacuum cleaner, was 15% cheaper during a 29-day time period between May and June compared to Black Friday. Gradually the price was increased until in October it was over double what it used to be. Ironically a John Lewis representative stated that "Our customers can find deals with us all year round, but our Black Friday event brings together a unique breadth and volume of offers that can't be found at any other time of year - and is especially popular as customers prepare for Christmas." Interestingly enough studies show otherwise. 

This picture shows the chaos as shoppers in Europe fight for a TV and is from The New York Times

 This urgency technique combined with many others makes customers spend a diabolical amount of money. Before Black Friday this year, it was estimated that over 2 billion euros would be spent on clothing over the weekend and 670,000 on toys. Researchers have also noted that these numbers are so high because people are preparing for the upcoming holidays. This is a 5.6% increase from last year's estimated spending and means that each person will spend around 213 euros. 

Of course new generations bring new standards and habits, so it is important to look into the habits of Gen Z. EduBirdie conducted a study involving 2,000 Gen Z participants and their spending probabilities. Initial numbers show that 13% of Gen Z prepared months ahead for Black Friday and 47% of Gen Z planned to only buy necessities. On the day of, 26% planned to spend half of their monthly paycheck while 6% planned to spend their whole monthly salary and 2% even more than that. 

Of course we all want that thrill of buying new things and showing them off to others, but Black Friday always brings in the conversation of consumerism and waste. When I first started researching for this article I was spending a lot of my time trying to find the best deals from my favorite stores. My mom was the one who had told me about the Black Friday scam and I always kept it in mind. As I talked to people and saw videos of these young girls spending thousands on clothing with the excuse of Black Friday on Instagram, I realized not everyone was as fortunate as me to have known this information. I started developing this article right before the deeply dreaded finals week, so I had difficulty finding the time while also fighting for a good GPA. 

From the Register Forum

On the last day of school, I had volleyball practice where we did a little Secret Santa type of activity. I was proud of my gift and thought mine would at the least be appreciated. But of course that's not how the universe works. Although my friend was polite about it, I could immediately tell it was not what she had wanted. After this whole gift swap situation, some people started distributing gifts to every single person. As I was driving home, I was so happy. I love getting gifts, no matter what it is, I am always so happy because it's new and different. My dad was driving me home and as we drove I showed him all the new things I had gotten but then slowly all of these new shiny presents seem to turn into trash before my eyes. I was especially happy to receive a bottle of mascara from one of the most recommended brands within the toxic teenage girl community. Then I looked at it again. I had three bottles, all gifted to me, just like this one, at home, one of them was even the same brand, but a different color than my new one. I remembered that all of my friends had received this gift, all 12 of us. I would bet that at least 8 of the girls already had this bottle with the same brand. I already know for a fact that all of us have a type of mascara, so then why did we buy yet another bottle of mascara for everyone? 

From Forbes

It's crazy how we are brought so much joy by consuming that we ignore it and simply move on with our lives. Even without considering the poor, the environment, or the waste of money that is brought into our lives because of this love for acquiring things, consumerism is just wrong. In 8th grade all I saw on social media was other people going on shopping sprees and buying lululemon leggings that are a hundred dollars. These videos were complete lies, obviously, but I saw one video that was actually inspiring. I have always loved quotes so I stopped to read it. It said "People were created to be loved, things were created to be used: the reason the world is in chaos is because things are being loved and people are being used". I later found that this saying is traced back to Dalai Lama and Martin Buber. Dalai Lama believed that what led to dissatisfaction was attachment and craving, by this he means that material wealth promises happiness but never delivers. He describes a cycle of wanting, buying, and not finding the satisfaction then the whole thing starts once again. Notice how after a new IPhone comes out, everyone suddenly seems to desperately need the new and slightly better camera which does absolutely nothing different from the latest one?

I think we all know the difference between our wants and needs, however, we keep it in a dark corner of our minds most of the time. It's hard of course because of our constant exposure to extreme consumers and the availability of everything. By writing this article, I do not expect everyone reading this to never buy another pair of pants or a new phone, I know I will be doing both of these at some point, all I hope for is that people think twice before buying junk that they will not use again. Most of all I wrote it as a reminder to myself. And for the mascara that my friend gave to me, I kept it, I still haven't opened. I plan to give it to a friend who actually needs and wants it rather than keeping it to myself and only half liking it. 

References

the Guardian

Entrepreneur

NBC News

WTOP News