As a nation of consumers, Americans don’t need a special reason to run out and shop. It’s something we do plenty of annually. However, there are days marked on the calendar when shopping completely takes over and causes people to stampede through automated doors and fight over who gets the final Furby. Black Friday is the biggest day of shopping in the year, and with our bellies still full with Thanksgiving fixin’s, we flock in droves to the nearest and largest department stores.
Black Friday has its roots in Philadelphia and started to become part of the American vernacular in the mid 1970s. Starting at midnight after Thanksgiving, millions of people around the country start their engines and cram parking lots. It’s been the busiest shopping day in the country for nearly a decade, and people even look for Black Friday deals online by the millions to ensure they’re not missing a solid sale.
Speaking of online shopping, there’s also Cyber Monday to contend with. Yikes! That’s double the trouble for shopaholics. Coined in 2005, Cyber Monday is the equivalent of Black Friday, only it takes place strictly online the Monday after that busy Friday.
Two official shopping holidays in a three-day span. What’s a shopper to do? Well, like all shoppers, you probably want to know which sale is going to give you the best bargains. So that’s something we’ll figure out below.
Which Sale Holiday Suits You Better?
Black Friday is well known for offering great deals on everything from televisions to toilet paper. Stores slash their prices tremendously, like the exact opposite of price gouging. They know plenty of shoppers are coming through the doors, and the lower prices ensure that products move out. Shopping on Black Friday can save you an average of 30% on all the usual gift items you’re likely to purchase for Christmas, Kwanza, Chanukah, or whatever holiday you celebrate.
However, you also have to gas up the car, fight traffic, wrestle with other shoppers, and handle all that merchandise yourself. That’s a lot to do in the course of a shopping day. And that’s not even mentioning that people are more likely to buy what they touch. So while you go the store with plans of only purchasing a few items, you end up purchasing a trunk load.
With Cyber Monday, you still end up with the same types of deals you’ll find on Black Friday. The bigger benefit here is that you don’t have to actually go shopping. You can browse websites and find whatever it is you want. Shipping costs may be an issue, but that’s usually offset by the fact you can browse 100-times the stores online that you can in the real world.
When it’s all said and done, there are two schools here. There are the people who like to save money, and the people who like to shop with their senses. If you fit the latter, you probably want to fight crowds on Black Friday. If you’re out to shop on a budget, though, you can avoid traffic, save on gas, and still find the hottest deals by choosing to shop the different Monday cyber sales.
In terms of which sale wins out, it all depends on where you stand on shopping. But with no gas money to spend and a host of online vouchers you can use, you can definitely save more money by shopping on Cyber Monday.