How companies are preparing for Black Friday-pandemic edition

By Abigail Portwood

 

Black Friday has become the highlight of the Thanksgiving weekend. Americans look forward to hitting the stores for intense shopping mere hours after eating a feast that is supposed to represent gratitude for the things we already have. Some Americans even skip the traditional meal in order to get in line early at their favorite stores. While I personally do not agree with the intense commercialization of the holidays, most people, including companies, love the thrill of shopping in the end of November and throughout December. This year, Black Friday will Look extremely different than all the other years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many companies have shifted their focus to creating new ways for their consumers to get good deals all month long. There are multiple different ways that companies have changed the concept of Black Friday—let’s explore them.

 

1. Whole month of savings

Companies such as Target, Lowe’s, Best Buy and Walmart have created week-long events where customers can save on many different items. The sales are multi-phased and different products are included in different sales. This allows the companies to be able to ship their items to their customers at a timely manner. According to Target.com, “Target’s kicking off holiday savings early this year, and stretching the deals throughout the season.”

 

2. Expansion of curbside pickup

The concept of curbside pickup has been around since before the pandemic began in March 2020, but with Black Friday and holiday shopping coming up, companies have increased the amount of parking spots available as well as the time slots that customers have to pick up their items. Curbside pickup encourages staying home to shop, and the contactless delivery to the car means you get the products faster than waiting for UPS to drop them off. This has become so effective that many companies like JCPenney and Nordstrom have allowed all of their locations to provide curbside pickup.

 

3. Mask requirement becomes more strict

Most companies throughout the United States are requiring their customers to wear masks inside the store. With the requirement of masks and the limit to how many people can be in a store at a time, there should be a decent level of safety this Black Friday.

 

My suggestion is: stick to online shopping or curbside pickup to minimize the spread of the virus and do your part to protect essential workers. This holiday season should be focused on appreciating what we have.

 

https://corporate.target.com/article/2020/09/target-deal-days

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