The Death of Black Friday

Has what was once an intense, high-stakes one day adventure has now become a week-long somewhat scam? Before, people rushed into stores, hoping to score huge bargains that actually made a difference in their budgets. Now, it feels more like a long marketing season than a single day, with deals starting weeks in advance and a lot of shoppers wondering if they are really saving anything at all. 

Black Friday sale shopping bags (Photo: Which UK)

In 2025, Black Friday was still a massive shopping moment, just in a different format. Big retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy pushed deals online and in apps, with heavy discounts on electronics, gaming, clothing, and home items; plus tons of “limited‑time” and “lightning” offers designed to keep people scrolling. Instead of camping outside a store for one doorbuster TV, shoppers were refreshing pages, comparing prices, and chasing promo codes from their couches. Spending numbers show that people were still willing to shop, even if they were stressed about money.

U.S. online Black Friday sales hit around 11.8 billion dollars this year, setting a new record and growing roughly 9% from last year, while total spending (online and in‑store) rose at 4%. At the same time, a lot of shoppers tried to be more strategic, focusing on specific items they had planned for in advance instead of just impulse‑buying everything with a sale tag. 

This year in particular was one that was pretty rough, economically speaking. With a tense job market, cuts left and right, higher prices, slower growth, and general anxiety meant that shoppers had a lot less money to play with this year. They were extremely price‑sensitive, so more people went out or logged on, but many spent less per person and hunted hard for truly good deals. Some reports even described a “paradox” where retailers saw heavy traffic but still had to fight to get people to open their wallets beyond essentials and carefully chosen gifts. This all makes sense as times have changed drastically, from then to now. 

Compared to the old days of Black Friday, things are now very different. Back then, the whole thing centered on in‑person doorbusters: lines wrapped around buildings, people swapping stories in the cold, and a handful of genuinely steep markdowns that made the wait feel worth it. Now, Black Friday stretches across days or even weeks, the “deal” prices often aren’t that far from what you see at other times of the year, and the experience is less about standing in line to save real money and more about sifting through endless online offers to find the few that are actually legit.