This year, Black Friday shopping has been very different compared to previous years. Very few stores used to show customers Black Friday Sale previews. Usually, the well-known companies to give previews were Best Buy and Target, and others I am probably forgetting. However, with Covid 19, stores had to change their plans. Most stores had Black Friday Sale previews. In fact, some stores, Target and Nordstrom to name a few, already have their Black Friday 2021 previews out. Some stores, such as Walmart, had online-only Black Friday shopping as a way to limit the number of people in the physical stores.

If it were up to me, I would require all stores, that have websites, to have Black Friday sales online-only. There are many pros to not having to do in-store Black Friday shopping. 

For one, you save money, not only on gas but on what you spend on shopping as well. With Black Friday shopping, for me anyway, I find it overwhelming to see all the items on sale. I find myself impulse buying, even if I don’t need or plan on needing that item. I’ve seen people at the store impulsively shop, and buy items with a good sale. An issue with that is people don’t think about the size of their vehicle or if they have space for the item in their house. Online, many stores give the dimensions of items, often furniture or TVs. With online shopping, it’s more difficult to impulsively shop, since there is a whole set of steps that are required to purchase what’s in your cart. 

When shopping in person, it is difficult to get the total for what you have in the cart, unless you have a calculator. With online shopping, you have a cart that shows the total cost of everything in it. Shipping costs might have persuaded people not to shop online for Black Friday shopping this year. However, most stores have a minimum purchase price for free shipping. For Best Buy and Target, it’s $35, unless you use your Target RedCard to get 2-day free shipping or your MyBestBuy Elite and Elite Plus account. Many stores also provide free store drive-up pickup for items they sell.

Another advantage of having Black Friday shopping online-only is the period of time waiting in the checkout line. Some people need to buy groceries and don’t want to have to stand in line for a long time. When I went shopping this year, I found that at Walmart, the checkout line was much quicker than the one at Target. This was likely due to the online-only Black Friday shopping at Walmart. In my experience, Walmart almost always has a longer checkout time.

When waiting in line, your body can get sore if you haven’t chosen to use a cart. After a while, your feet begin to hurt. Online shopping can be done from anywhere, be it your couch, bed, school, or basement.