Millennials Hate Black Friday – And We’re Enjoying Its Slow Death

Millennials Hate Black Friday – and we’re enjoying its slow death

Growing up, I remember watching the classic holiday films that showed frantic parents racing to buy the newest gadget for their spoiled brats.

This was Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving where stores across the country slashed prices off of everything that your kids wanted and junk that you didn’t need but thought you did. Because grotesque capitalism.

This was an American tradition that reflected my parents’ eccentric sense of keeping up with the Joneses’.

A recession, a digital divide, and some social-life lessons learned later, millennials could care less about running to stores early in the morning to fight for crap that we most likely have already.

As a 24-year old finally “adulting,” I won’t be shopping on Black Friday like my parents did and I’m cool with that.

For one, Black Friday is against what millennials stand for philosophically.

The idea of waiting till the end of the year to purchase movies, music, and anything else for a discount is outdated within itself.  Most of my friends like to buy things on release – who doesn’t have Adele’s new album already? To wait longer than a week for new music or any gadget would be a week too long. Our generation prides itself on being the first to have it – Black Friday would be asking us to be patient for “deals” – yeah, no.

Second, this shopping event predicates itself on us going into malls and large department stores – who does that anymore?

I don’t remember the last time I went to the mall for anything. Shopping at multiple stores by foot early seems so ancient – I don’t remember doing it since the dreadful days of back-to-school shopping when I was twelve. The Internet has made the idea of running out of bed to grab deals basically pointless when your fingers can do all of the clicking.

Third, are the deals really worth the hassle? Nope.

If it isn’t over 50% off, that’s not a deal to me. Seriously, if I were even inspired to climb out of bed after a food-coma to go “shopping” it would feel like a joke to inconvenience my sanity just for the additional states tax to be removed. I rather pay that if it meant not wasting an Uber ride, patience, and morals in order to get a deal that really isn’t one. Sorry, but marking off something that most likely was on sale the week before isn’t impressive. Plus, let’s not forget the New Year’s deals that will probably be even better.

More importantly, Black Friday isn’t innovate or creative – it’s corporate and everything Millennials despise of the previous generation.

So why would anyone think it’s impressive to partake in a rat race for a sweater that most likely everyone will have? I crave originality, a sense of giving gifts that are more personalized that show my thoughtfulness. The discounted scarf and coat set from a department store isn’t a gift that says, “I put thought into this” – but simply, “I got this on sale and you will deal.” That being said, I find that my best holiday gifts had more sentimental value than the discounts I personally received. Last Christmas, I gave my mother my college degree in a personalized frame that I had bought before Black Friday. A very active shopper, my mother said she never seen a frame like it anywhere else.

That’s what the holiday’s are about – the thought, not the sale.

Millennials get that more than I think my parents’ generation did. But who could blame them in an era that had more Saturday morning cartoons that brainwashed their kids into thinking they had to get that “must-have” toy of the year?

It’s safe to say that my generation is still trying to understand where it stands on such shopping habits and trends, but at least I can say that Black Friday is one tradition that we’re ready to be dead on arrival.