Thanksgiving is a glorious time of year when families should reunite and enjoy a filling meal while chatting and laughing deep into the night. Yet for some families, it is a time that exists solely for the purpose of catching the latest Black Friday sales.

As the years have gone by, to many Americans, Thanksgiving has simply become the “Christmas Eve” of Black Friday. For consumers, it is a chance to buy items to their heart’s desire, but to major companies, this is their time to make billions.

Of course, sales on Black Friday pose attractive offers that will help people save hundreds of dollars, but who really benefits? People who rush for the sales racks at midnight simply fall into the trap large companies have set: they trade spending quality time with their family on Thanksgiving night for spending countless hours in stores, impulsively buying whatever items they suppose have a good deal.

When asked about what he thought about Black Friday, Luke Schraer ‘18 said he pictures, “People swarming shops and malls the day after swearing that they’re thankful for family and friends, but really, they’re thankful for their epic bargain hunting skills.” Evidently, the concept of Black Friday has a great amount of irony—families say they are thankful for and content with what they already have, but then race to stores to buy more items.

It seems that Black Friday concept succeeds because both the consumers and the producers benefit; people get everything they wanted and retailers receive a profit. Shivani Pillalamarri ‘17 agrees: “Black Friday is meant for both the customers and the producers. Numerous sales attract more customers, and more customers means more money, even if the prices are low. And the more people, the more publicity.”

People get trapped in a perpetual merry-go round; they can’t see through all the bright lights and don’t understand how they are tricked to stay on the ride. Thus, it is not fair to say that all Americans are crazy for following the amazing deals.

Most customers simply shop at their own leisure, but do so on Black Friday because it is the best opportunity to save money. Families can spend a long time enjoying each other’s presence as well as buying items and saving money at the same time.

Statistics have consistently shown the rising profits that producers are receiving. Starting with in 2011, retailers reeled in $52 billion dollars. In 2012, sales reached their peak of $59.5 billion dollars. In 2014our “frugal” nation spent $50.5 billion on Black Friday…but is frugality really the cause of this decrease in spending?

In reality, an added $2.4 billion was spent online the following Monday. The term Cyber Monday has sprung from the large amounts of sales now taking place online the Monday following Thanksgiving. Buyers no longer need to get active to beat people to the racks, but they contend in the sales race straight from their couches. The addition of a new day for shopping shows how Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving break are being taken over by retailers. It seems as if people now believe that Thanksgiving is more of a time for shopping and spending money, rather than spending time with family.

But when Schraer was asked what he thought about Thanksgiving, he immediately responded, “For me, Thanksgiving always brings to mind memories of family and huge feasts, but most importantly, eating insane amounts of food and having absolutely no regrets about it.” It’s a fact that there are adults and children in the modern era who do not value the meaning of Thanksgiving nor do they even know the meaning behind it, but there are even more who love to have large feasts with their cousins, siblings, aunts, uncles, and grandparents and laugh around a large turkey as they bask in the love and warmth of their surroundings.