50 People Share The Worst Fails They've Seen On Black Friday

The National Retail Federation reports that 196.7 million Americans shopped in stores and online during the five-day holiday in 2022, from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday.

That’s more than the jaw-dropping 179.8 million shoppers in 2021, 186.4 million in 2020, and 189.6 million in 2019.

Broadly speaking, Black Friday tends to be (one of) the busiest shopping days of the year in the US… as well as in some other parts of the world. However, you’d be wrong to think that Black Friday begins and ends on… well, Black Friday.

The shopping ‘holiday’ has a tendency to ‘bleed’ into the surrounding weeks… and even months (yes! Months!).

For instance, the Monday right after Black Friday is known as Cyber Monday. Retailers and companies continue to sell products and services at a discount. Some of them go further, celebrating Cyber Week.

Others, however, go even beyond that.

CNN reports that in 2023, retailers “threw out the playbook,” rolling out deals in a similar vein as Black Friday weeks in advance. What this means is that this year, the impact of Black Friday itself might be lessened.

After all, if you’ve already hunted down the best deals of the season in advance, you might not want or need anything else. If you bought a new laptop/TV/console, you don’t need a second one.

According to Parija Kavilanz from CNN, the November and December months account for around a fifth of retailers’ sales for the entire year. This means that the gift-buying season is incredibly important for companies’ sales and profits.

Retailers who fail to take advantage of the seasonal rush might find that they’re far behind their competitors.

Marshal Cohen, the chief retail industry analyst with market research firm Circana, told CNN that Black Friday is now more akin to ‘Grey Friday.’ “The dilution of the power of Black Friday has begun again this year. Gone is the sense of urgency and excitement. But the quest for value is still there,” the specialist explained.

As the shopping ‘holiday’ spreads out over a longer period of time, what this means, in practical terms, is that there’s less urgency for shoppers to rush to their local retail stores. Though you’ll still find people camping and queuing up before opening time and fighting over goods, this year, all of this might be slightly muted (well, comparatively). There’s slightly less competition.