Black Friday Madness In North Jersey: A Student Writer Weighs In

NORTH JERSEY — Young Laetitia Hubert of Summit has been submitting her photographs to Patch for some time (see her snowy photo essay from when she was 10). She has now written several columns and will be sharing them.

Below, she shared her thoughts after joining her family on a recent shopping trip on Black Friday. In the past, they have shopped in Paramus, Bridgewater, Union County, Livingston, and the Short Hills Mall.

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Black Friday: The Madness Behind It All

By Laetitia Hubert

We all know Black Friday—the day after Thanksgiving that marks the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season. It's an event that's become ingrained in our culture, with shoppers eagerly anticipating the sales and discounts.

I myself was so eager to go and managed to convince my mom so I could find Christmas presents for my family. I soon realized what the day typically entails.

It starts off with long lines at the parking lot and hoping you'll finally get a spot, after of course trailing some poor family across the lot. Once you enter the mall, as we have all seen, there's a multitude of signs hung in windows, beaming with attention-grabbing phrases: “Buy ONE, get ONE 50 percent off!” “25 percent off FULL STORE!” “70 percent OFF selected items!”

Each of these phrases is meticulously designed to entice you, as it did me, appealing to your desire for a great deal.

The strategic placement of these messages is quite telling; the percentage discounts are often highlighted in bold, bright colors, while the conditions that may apply—like “selected items only”—are tucked away in smaller print at the bottom. This can trick people into believing they are scoring an incredible deal.

Not only is Black Friday an amazing day for the consumers, it is also amazing for the vendors.

While you are emptying out all of your hard earned money, they are making great sales. Some Black Friday deals though are not worth it. You may think you are getting a good deal, but in reality, they are only knocking off a few dollars from the original price. These include deals that say 10-30 percent off, for most consumers who have a more limited budget.

Even though Black Friday is really popular, what people don’t know is that if you wait longer, after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you can get even better deals. This is because the holidays are coming and stores like to have bigger sales around that time to clear stock in readiness for new spring stock.

Messes At The Mall

I guess you could say Black Friday can be considered a downside to stores vendors as well. Things can be broken, as I recently witnessed, and clothes can be damaged or left in piles, causing a huge problem for the staff managing the stores.

Not only this, some stores get so many customers that in the end, there are long lines going from the front of the store to the back. This steers people away from the lines because of not wanting to wait a while. So, this in turn can harm their business. Alternatively sometimes the lines draw other customers in as they wish to see what's going on so this will help it flourish.

All in all, Black Friday can be seen as a good deal to some, and a waste of money and time to others. Obviously, if there is a sale for 40-70 percent off, I would grab my hands on that. However, some sales require more thought than others. I say do your homework before you go. A tip maybe visit the mall before the sale and see what you have an interest in then at least you can focus your search. Remember it's a mass of people looking for a deal.

In conclusion, it just depends on what kind of shopper you are, one that goes for any deal, or one that waits for lower prices, and then strikes. But I am happy to see the stores busy as I too prefer to see and feel what I buy vs simply buying online, plus there is the thrill of it all and then of course I was exhausted at the end!

The question is would I do it again, the chances are yes! Merry Merry!

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