BILLINGS — In an era of online shopping and deals right at your fingertips, the Black Friday shopping tradition has begun to shift. This year, many stores chose not to open early and stuck to their regular hours.
Long gone are the days of doorbuster deals.
“It was insane," said Megan Gonyea, a Rimrock shopper, on Friday. "You had to line up at stores hours before, it started Thursday. I feel like it was so rushed and you had to have a plan as to what you wanted from what stores."
Crowds, lines, and the occasional casualty all for savings are now seemingly a thing of the past.
"Now it’s kind of like, you can just walk in," Gonyea said. "I don’t feel like the deals are as good as they used to be either."
Black Friday used to be a fixture on our calendars, but now, thanks to online shopping and a lack of in-person deals, it can feel like any other day at the mall.
“This just feels like a normal Tuesday at the mall,” said Emily Bennett, a Rimrock shopper, on Friday. “It’s like 10% off of a $600 item. What’s the point in that? There were no deals in the stores. I was like, well I need that item anyway, so I have to come here. But it’d be nice if there were some deals."
Shoppers said they've noticed a change in traditions.
“We were just talking about how there doesn’t seem to be as many deals anymore," said Natalie White, a Rimrock shopper, on Friday. "We’ll go into stores and it’s like, buy one get one 30% off instead of being like 70% off. It’s very different now."
According to Adobe Analytics, consumers have spent 5 percent more online in the first 20 days of November than they did in the same period last year.
“I think convenience and just like being able to find everything you want at your fingertips is really important," Bennett said. "I mean, I can go look all through Amazon in five minutes, whereas people kind of are tired of waking up early and getting out and doing all of the physical work to get the stuff. It’s a lot nicer just to have it in your pocket."
Over the years, the tradition prompted stores to open earlier to meet consumer demands. First, they opened at dawn Friday, then midnight the night before, and finally, the night of Thanksgiving in the mid 2010s.
"I used to go with my mom all the time and we’d be there at like 6 a.m., ready to go. You know, elbowing, pushing through,” Bennett said. "Elbow to elbow with everybody. And now there’s nothing going on."
That trend began to reverse a few years ago following backlash from retail workers.Some even went as far as going on strike, protesting issues brought on by the tradition.
Many big-brand stores like Target and Walmart opted to not open Thanksgiving night for shoppers as they have in years past. At the Rimrock Mall, most stores opened at 8 a.m. Friday.
“It’s very quiet, it’s calm, it’s kind of refreshing," Gonyea said. "But it’s also like, I would almost rather just shop online at the same time."
Proving that if the stores are open, customers will come to shop regardless of deals.
“We just got done with Buckle," Bennett said. "Bath and Body Works has really good deals. They were buy three, get three free. So that’s the kind of deals we like. Fifty percent off, we’ll do that."
