It’s that season again. Black Friday, a store’s best hope of being “in the black” at the end of the year, coincides perfectly with Christmas shopping. Stores will often focus on selling expensive technologies – TVs, phones and a myriad of other gadgets – to foot the year’s bill. This year, Black Friday sales have migrated to the point where they take place as early as Halloween. This may be attributed to the fact that stores are trying to present their deals and discounts before rivals.
Videogame systems figure big in this year’s sales. Items such as the PS4 and Xbox are in hot competition with each other for customers. As well as announcing discounts early, Xbox is announcing new game packages to be included in the sale. This is sure to tip the scales in the favor of Xbox.
Large plasma TVs are also a key field for competition. LG and Panasonic are both racing to out-price each other this year. LG has dropped prices on 32-inch screens to as low as the $160 range, and Panasonic is reducing large 60-inch screens to the $780 range.
Another competition front is the Internet. Perhaps the most efficient marketing tool in the box, the Internet provides an almost unlimited medium for advertising. Any website can host advertisements. To publicize discounts, stores may post anything from fancy pictures to elaborate animations, so long as it fits in the 3×3 inch box. Another reason the Internet is such a technological boon is that billions of people use it each day – thousands may view a certain site each day – and all those thousands may view a certain company’s ad.
The deciding factor is, as always, customer preference. Exactly what a customer wants to buy, or whether they want to buy anything at all, will ultimately determine profits. Many people are not affected at all by the intense advertising that goes on during, and often before, Black Friday.
Others respond to sales and advertising much more readily: “On Black Friday I’m going straight to Walmart to get a Turtle Beach headset,” says Rajan Gupta’17.
While the decision to ‘shop until you drop’ lies solely in the consumer’s hands, there is no doubt that this year, advertisers are going into overdrive.