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Impact of the Internet on shopping
Impact of the Internet on shopping
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People with tents, bundled up to their noses in coats and scarves trying to keep warm while they await the doors to be open – this can only mean one thing: it’s Black Friday. Every year when the day after Thanksgiving rolls around, employees and shoppers never know what to expect from the shopping madness. “We had to break up a few fights – nothing major – last year was much worse,” said Laura Geraldson, a local Wal-Mart employee, as she described the Black Friday scene at her store. “People were pushing and shoving, hollering and screaming. You would have thought you were in a war movie.” Wal-Mart isn’t the only store with a chaotic Black Friday. “It was sheer madness. It was like ‘The Hunger Games’ here,” said Travis Liening, a local …show more content…
“The money is not condensed into one day anymore.”
In fact, some people believe we are not far from seeing Black Friday become a thing of the past, with Cyber Monday taking its place.
Cyber Monday sales were up 31.5 percent this year, and shoppers with loaded carts online bought the items at a 12.6 percent higher rate on Cyber Monday than on Black Friday, according to a survey taken by IBM.
Local employees have also noted this trend toward Cyber Monday over black Friday.
“We’ve noticed a steady growth in sales on Cyber Monday and decline in sales on Black Friday over the past few years,” said Emily Madison, an assistant manager at a local Best Buy. “I think we’re getting closer to Cyber Monday becoming a much larger earner for us than Black Friday.
Some shoppers say they would be fine with this shift.
“Why would I go run around in the cold and deal with all the madness when I can do it from my house,” said Jeannie O’Dell. “ I can get just as good of a deal if not a better one on Cyber Monday without any of the trouble. It’s a no-brainer for
Rudarakanchana, D. (2013). E-Commerce retailers foresee strong holiday sales, amazon besting traditional firms. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.com/e-commerce-retailers-foresee-strong-holiday-sales-amazon-besting-traditional-firms-1468146
It is seen in everything from the hoarding of material objects to the destruction of friendships, both of which are popular themes when regarding the topic of Black Friday shopping. Black Friday has become Black Thursday, a trend which has only shown up within the last decade. The great American holiday that is Thanksgiving is celebrated because of our gratefulness toward all that we have, a holiday that is meant to be spent gathered around a table of our loved ones. However, the retail holiday that consumes the day afterward has begun to overflow into our gatherings, and it is due to the greed of the American people. Were it not for the market’s demand for earlier sales, stores would not open their sales on Thursday nights. Everyone would simply wait until early the next morning to start off on their shopping extravaganzas, and the sales themselves would likely be far less violent as
Over the years, the American department store has developed and evolved as not only a commercial business but also a cultural institution. While it has weathered many storms and changes since its inception and throughout history, its most predominant enemy has been a change in the lifestyle of the American people (Whitaker, 2013). As the customer’s needs and wants have shifted, department stores have struggled to keep up with demands. It has been argued that the decline of the department store has been ongoing for the last 50 years (Whitaker, 2013). This dissertation aims to understand how the department store has historically played a role in consumer culture and spending, and additionally, how this has evolved and changed in today’s retail market. Although department stores may not be able to take all the credit for inventing modern shopping, they certainly made its conventions and conveniences commonplace. They set a new standard for the way the consumer should expect to be treated, the type of services that should be provided, and the convenience that should attend the process of acquiring the necessities and niceties of life all in one place. They made shopping into a leisure pastime. This environment meant shopping was a means of freedom to look around, pick up objects with no obligations to buy. As one historian remarked, department stores: “encouraged a perception of the building as a public place, where consumption itself was almost incidental to the delights of a sheltered promenade in a densely crowded, middle-class urban space” (Whitaker, 2006). Although this perception and view of the department store has changed over the years, this paper aims to follow the trail of how and why that happened.
The law of demand tells us that "Quantity demanded rises as price falls, other things constant, or alternatively, quantity demanded falls as price rises, other things constant (McGraw 2004). The XBOX 360 phenomenon that took place in 2005 is a good example of this economic principle at work. Microsoft's XBOX 360 gaming console was released into the U.S. market on November 22nd 2005. The release came after a great deal of advertising and media hype that ensured that the demand for the product would outweigh the supply. Quite simply, there were more consumers wanting to purchase the product than there was product available. The retail price for the gaming system with a hard drive was $399. Many consumers, however, paid a great deal more than the $399 sticker price to acquire the system. On the morning of the U.S. release, retailers across the nation sold out of the product within just a few hours of opening their doors to consumers. In the weeks that followed however, many consumers purchased the unit from sellers on on-line auction sites and even from individuals in parking lots for as much as $1500. The reason for this was that the supply was significantly less than the demand for the product. In some cases, parents who wanted to ensure that their children received and XBOX 360 for Christmas in 2005 were willing to pay well over retail for the hard-to-acquire system. In other cases, video gaming enthusiasts wanted to be among the first individuals to own and play the system. News reports across the nation showed footage of people lining up days ahead of November 22nd in order to secure a place in line at retailers that would have the product available on the release date.
I woke up one morning in the need of some groceries because I ran out of eggs to make breakfast. I also realized that I needed ink cartridges, glue for a project, and a video game that I wanted; materials that normal grocery stores wouldn’t sell. Wal-Mart is the typical superstore where you can get almost anything. So I figured what better place to get all of these items at a good price than to go to Wal-Mart.
Chain stores, such as K-Mart and Wal-Mart swing their doors wide for all deal seekers at around 6 a.m. Individuals will wake up earlier than necessary, drive to these stores, and camp out prior to the stores opening, if only just to ensure they get the best spot in line. Also near this time, various online deals begin. This means before many people wake up on Thanksgiving morning, sales have already started both in store and online. By this standard, the day’s workers have to get to the store hours before it opens to prepare the store for the surplus of people and the chaos that will soon enfold. People should be getting rest or preparing food for their lunches or dinners, but instead they are shopping or working. Retailers place priority on shopping from the moment people wake up until they go to sleep. There is never an emphasis on family throughout the entire day in these chain stores. The madness occurs throughout the entirety of both days, causing lack of family time in both days of the holiday for patrons and
First of all, a Buy Nothing Day would have great benefits to the economy of a nation. While money would not be taken into the economy on the Buy Nothing Day, consumers are not spending for a day and are keeping their money. The economy of a nation, with the exception of vital goods, stock, lodging expenses, etc., could practically halt for just one day. Businesses would have the chance to re-cooperate and catch back up. Overall, a day where workers and the economy could take a break would help the livelihood of businesses and allow the economy to calm down for just one day.
Thanksgiving is a time to get together with your family and have a nice dinner. Then you play games, catch up, and watch movies. Thanksgiving is the time to be grateful for what you have. But wait; now you had to start dinner earlier and cut out catching up with your family. Now it’s time to get ready to go shopping for those deals you just can’t beat. Forget about being thankful for what you have; now it’s time to buy all the things you don’t have. Has Thanksgiving been taking over by Black Friday, or should we now be calling it Black Thursday? Stores should only be able to open after 12 am on Black Friday.
... multiple catalogs and advertisements to find the stores where they will be able to get the best deals. Then, they create a plan of the stores where they will shop. Often times, people will go on Thanksgiving evening to get a spot in line at a store, in order to be one of the first shoppers allowed inside the store.
Starting the day right after Thanksgiving, everybody’s mind is set on one thing: Shopping. People young and old wake up early in the morning to start their holiday shopping. Everyone is looking for the perfect gift for their family and friends. But nobody cares to think of what the employees at their favorite stores think and feel. Shoppers just come inside and turn the store upside down.
In fact, they have fun on the day because they love the atmosphere through Christmas songs and illuminations. Christmas is thought by many people to be the most wonderful time of the year. Winter snow, Christmas tree, decorations and Santa Claus are very important things which makes us happy and think that it is the most beautiful day of all the year. Everybody waits for the day because it has various meanings for different people. Moreover, they can see beautiful illuminations and listen to Christmas songs in cities or downtown. However, some adults who are parents need to spend money for buying many gifts for children. In the United States, parents generally purchase the gifts on a Black Friday. It is good for them to get their presents on the day because they more discounts on that day than other
Best Buy has a unique perspective on their business and technology because they pride themselves in educating customers. As Spenner and Freeman (2012) mentions, customers want simplicity and need to be able to make informed decisions. By educating customers about the products and teaching them how to use it, Best Buy could actually increase the chances of the customer buying the product because they are confident in it and Best Buy. This is how Best Buy practices business now. Building on this is the fact that employees are paid hourly instead of based on commission so the employees don’t have to make hard sales, which can be a negative for many customers. Centricity, Best Buy’s tailoring of their stores for targeted customers, is a great concept as well (Chandrasekhar, 2009). It allows the biggest profit generating customers to feel comfortable and encourages spending through a more relaxed environment.
Around Christmas time all people have a different way we like to go about shopping. Some like to stay in the comfort of their own home. While others like to save every little penny they can and some shoppers like to get in and out of the store as fast as possible. There are three types of holiday shoppers, the online shoppers, the bargain shoppers, and last but not least the man on a mission.
Ordinarily, people witness vulgar acts and retaliate accordingly. While shopping on Black Friday, it is not uncommon to watch someone steal something out of someone else’s cart, causing an unruly argument in the store, or witness someone flipping another person off while driving down the
Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days leading up to Christmas. Consumers stand in line hours if not days before the doors open. The sales begin in the early hours of the morning; typically around 5 a.m. Shoppers save hundreds of dollars on all of the latest gadgets and accessories. But, the insane deals come with a catch. Several customers and employees end up bruised, injured, and even killed during the event. Greed for the lowest price during the holiday season has led to countless fights for a discounted item. Greed is a main theme expressed throughout The Hobbit written by J.R.R Tolkien