Black Friday is the annual shopping holiday that occurs on the Friday following Thanksgiving. It is mostly a shopping ritual to those people living in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Black Friday is a significant day to many retail stores because it is referred to as the start of the Christmas or holiday shopping season. The origin of the popular Black Friday dates back to before 1961, in Philadelphia, where it was formally used to describe the heavy vehicle and pedestrian traffic. It was always seen as extremely disruptive to the Philadelphia Police Department and always transpired on the day after Thanksgiving and thus the name Black Friday came about. As the years passed, an alternative reasoning for the title came to be known which denoted that retailers traditionally functioned at a financial loss recognized as, “in the red” from the months January to November. “Black Friday” therefore signifies the point at which retailers finally start to return a profit, “in the black”. Over the years more and more stores have begun opening at extremely early hours to help consumers get a jump-start on the sales. Some retailers have even started the trend of opening up at midnight. The Black Friday craze is tremendously popular, so popular in fact, that many incidents including violence has been seen in some cities in the past.
We wanted to research if Black Friday should be considered a ritual. Our research process included secondary and primary sources. Our primary sources were a combination of a survey sent out to college students between the ages of 18-25 and a few in depth interviews.
The first secondary source that we used for this project was “An Analysis of Consumer Behavior on Black Friday,” conducted at Eastern Illinois University. The Frustration Aggression Theory developed by Dollard, Miller, Doob, Mowrer and Sears in 1939, served as a conceptual framework for this study. The researchers in this study proposed that frustration and aggression have a cause and effect relationship, as frustration causes aggression and results from aggression. Black Friday is directly related to this theory because aggressive behavior strikes as customers are frustrated by long lines, crowded stores and limited product availability of sale items.
The researchers in this study developed a strategy which divided their research into three categories: in-line observations prior to store opening, store entry observations, and individual customer observations. They also recorded general consumer comments heard in line and in the store.
As a result, 22 observers recorded 222 individual observations. Observers found that 73% of customers were female and 27% were male. 52% of the observers reported that the ensuing chaos lasted up to 30 minutes, 19% of the observers reported that some of the customers “fell down or appeared injured” when the store opened. Customers discussed and reminisced about “how bad the last Black Friday was,” and conversations also related to the actual physical presence of the shoppers in-line, for example, “this line’s getting long,” or “how many people are in-line?” Observers noted frustration and aggravation amongst the customers and recorded statements such as “Idiots!” and “I’ve been here all night, I’m going home.” Other customers expressed thoughts and feelings such as, “Are we crazy our what?” and “This is an awfully strange way to spend a morning!” Other observations included in-line customers arguing with police officers, young children cursing at people in-line, and the people at the end of the line were mad and rude. Anxiety accounted for 25% of negative customer behavior, while irratibility accounted for 24% and tiredness accounted for 23%.
The second secondary source we used was “An Exploratory investigation of Black Friday Consumption Rituals.” This was conducted by Jane Boyd Thomas and Cara Peters at Winthrop University in South Carolina. This study occurred over a two year period where the authors along with research assistants conducted 38 in-depth interviews with experienced female Black Friday shoppers. Throughout this study, previous studies and theories were used as a basis for their research and findings.
Baker (2006) finds that, “a person’s view of him/herself may depend upon and be created by shopping rituals” Thus, shopping assists with an individual sense of self. Epp and Price (2008) find that a family’s identity is constructed through rituals. Rituals (shopping included) serve to create the family identity, delineate boundaries of family membership, and build continuity of family identity over time.
Rook (1985) states that there are three events that frame a ritual experience. These include, an episodic string of events, a sequence of events and repetition over time. Black Friday fulfills all three of these requirements. In respect to an episodic string of events, informants stated that they search for advertisements contained in newspapers for the best deals and planned the best shopping route. One respondent reported a well-established fixed-sequence of events in planning her shopping day with her mother. Finally, when it comes to repetition over time, the number of years that participants reported partaking in Black Friday shopping ranged from two to 35 years.
This study found that Black Friday has influenced Thanksgiving Day traditions. Sales tactics, combined with the consumers’ desires to save money and perhaps start (or even finish) their Christmas shopping, has resulted in Black Friday becoming a celebrated consumption ritual almost as important as Thanksgiving Day. Wallendorf and Arnould (1991) used the term “consumption ritual” to describe Thanksgiving Day as a “collective ritual that celebrates material abundance through feasting” These authors found evidence of women planning for shopping the next day (i.e. Black Friday) as part of the rituals that take place on Thanksgiving Day.
Not only is Black Friday considered a consumption ritual, but it is multi-layered and complex, combining traditional shopping rituals with elements of traditional holiday rituals. This study found four themes of Black Friday- familial bonds, strategic planning, the great race and mission accomplished.
Familial Bonding- Like holiday rituals, such as Thanksgiving (Wallendorf and Arnould, 1991), the sharing of the Black Friday consumption rituals with family members and close friends appeared as a central theme. Several shoppers explained that it is a “family” event in which multiple generations of women partake in the activity each year and several respondents stated that while waiting on line the family would tell stories together in order to pass time. In the data, the word “we” was also used many times and this suggests that consumers view the Black Friday consumption ritual as something the family bands together to overcome.
Strategic Planning- Informants each provided an in-depth description of the pre-purchase activities enacted each year prior to the Black Friday shopping experience. Most informants made it clear that planning for it was extensive and usually consisted of examining many advertisements. Each informant discussed how she began such planning on Thanksgiving Day, before and/or after the meal, along with family and friends who were present which proves that the collective consumption ritual of Thanksgiving holiday appears to bleed into the shopping rituals of Black Friday. Extensive planning is consistent with traditional holiday rituals. For example, extensive planning goes into the Thanksgiving Day meal thus, the extensive planning for Black Friday is somewhat consistent with traditional holiday rituals. However, extensive planning is rare for a typical shopping ritual.
The Great Race- While describing their shopping behavior on Black Friday, most informants make reference to the competitive nature of the event as most people described the event as a “race” or a “mad dash.” The descriptions of many sounded like a reality television show such as “The Amazing Race,” where friends and family are challenged to race. Since survival-like feelings are related to Black Friday, this makes the ritual feel exciting and adventurous to shoppers. It also heightens awareness that a challenge is at hand, almost as if a mission is to be accomplished through their shopping adventure as if they are competing with one another.
Mission Accomplished- Finally we come to the last theme of Black Friday. Informants viewed success of the Black Friday consumption ritual when, at the end of the day, they had accumulated several deeply discounted items and spent little in total. Deep discounts and sales by retailers are what motivate Black Friday shoppers and finding those discounted items feels like an adventure, parallel to a scavenger hunt. The success on Black Friday is measured by whether she has accomplished the plan.
In reference to the violent incidents that have occurred on Black Friday in recent history Lennon, Johnson and Lee note that some types of consumer misbehavior can harm the consumer (e.g., compulsive buying), whereas other types can harm other consumers (e.g., fighting over merchandise) or retailers (e.g., vandalism). Both of which have been found to occur during Black Friday.
Newspaper accounts of Black Friday misbehavior often associate it with highly desired promoted items such as consumer electronics or toys. However, apparel and accessories are also much sought after. Zewe (2007) reported that on Black Friday 2007, clothing and accessories were bought by 46.8%of shoppers; books, CDs, DVDs, and video games were bought by 41.7%of shoppers; and consumer electronics were bought by 35.5%of shoppers. Clothing ‘‘doorbusters’’ have led to misbehavior, with consumers overturning piles of clothing in their search for promoted items. Consumers respond to sales promotions due to the positive experiences the promotion provides such as saving money or feeling like smart shoppers.
Mulhern and Padgett found that about 75%of shoppers who visited a store specifically to purchase promotional items also purchased regular priced items. Thus, promotional pricing pays off in increased sales of nonpromotional merchandise. Use of a promotional pricing strategy is much in evidence on Black Friday, with stores routinely offering deeply discounted doorbusters to stoke consumer excitement.
Researchers have related several types of stimuli to consumer misbehavior including: crowding, promotions, long lines, stockouts, aggressive behaviors by other consumers, and rude/unhelpful employees. News accounts of Black Friday shopping demonstrate that all these stimuli are common on that day. It is also suggested that narcissistic individuals may be prone to engage in consumer misbehavior because they feel they are entitled to the promoted items.
Rogers points out how crowds play a big role in why this kind of misbehavior is so common among shoppers on Black Friday. He states that Gustave Le Bon’s The Crowd (1895) was the first comprehensive sociological study of the modern crowd and touted as one of the earliest works of crowd psychology explains crowd behavior psychodynamically as a breakdown of the individual into its base animal instincts that overtake the rational, intentional, and conscious ego, what Wilfred Trotter later elaborates as the “herd instinct” (1916, 11—65). The resultant “mental unity” of the crowd absorbs individuals into a singular mass susceptible to volatile action and irrational manipulations of magnetic demagoguery that might threaten the stability of established political order. Thus emphasizing how the “crowd effect” that is consistent on Black Friday events can reinforce animalistic and impulsive behaviors.

Bibliography
Lennon, Sharron J., Kim K. P. Johnson, and Jaeha Lee. "A Perfect Storm For Consumer Misbehavior: Shopping On Black Friday." Clothing & Textiles Research Journal 29.2 (2011): 119-134. PsycINFO. Web.
Mulhern, F. J., & Padgett, D. T. (1995). The relationship between retail price promotions and regular price purchases.Journal of Marketing, 59, 83-90
Rogers, Kenneth. "Black Friday: Crowdsourcing Communities Of Risk." Women's Studies Quarterly 40.1/2 (2012): 171-186. Education Abstracts (H.W. Wilson). Web.
Simpson, Linda; Taylor, Lisa; O'Rourke, Kathleen; and Shaw, Katherine, "An Analysis of Consumer Behavior on Black Friday" (2011). Faculty Research & Creative Activity.
Thomas, Jane Boyd, and Cara Peters. "An Exploratory Investigation of Black Friday Consumption Rituals." International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 39.7 (2011): 522-37. 9 Mar. 2011. Web.
Zewe, A. (2007, November 26).Black Friday 2007: Black Friday sales benefit shoppers, retailers.