A Different Kind of Black Friday

What do you think of when you hear the term “black friday?”

When I hear black friday the image that typically pops into my head is arnold schwarzenegger trying like mad to get his kid a toy in the movie Jingle all the way!

the retail years

For me, after working almost 7 years in corporate retail I think of Black Friday a little differently than most do… after getting the above image out of my head I think of how much anxiety I used to get as a fresh out of college assistant buyer trying to be successful in my first job and how I prayed that I wouldn’t mess up any black friday pricing in our POS system! We would spend days planning out ads, projecting sales, presenting to leadership, redoing it all when they didn’t love it and when it came time to actually enter the pricing we would be so nervous and hopeful that it would all go smoothly and you weren’t “that AB” that screwed up pricing and cost your department a large chunk of sales or your boss her bonus for the year!

Before “celebrating” Black Friday on actual thanksgiving day became a thing, we would test all of the pricing the Wednesday night before thanksgiving after the stores closed to to public and fix any errors then so that on actual Black Friday we could be out in stores checking out what promotions were getting what responses from customers and scooping out what promos the competition was running. Once the all of retailers decided they couldn’t wait until friday, Thanksgiving Day became just a part of black Friday. We tested pricing the day before and were expected to be in stores when they opened ON THANKSGIVING DAY! This meant that instead of spending time with family and enjoying as much wine and turkey as possible, I was required to be in the stores doing really crucial things like evaluating the reaction of customers and taking photos of store execution.

Over those 7 years in corporate retail it is pretty safe to say that I never found black friday to be fun… it was always a lot of work, the most stressful time of the year and resulted in the Thanksgiving Holiday with my head focused on that and not being able to slow down and be thankfulful for the hard to come by quality time with friends and family.

Black Friday Now

I can happily say that I now work on the finance team for a pet supply distributor and while plenty of pet supplies are purchased over black friday my job does not require me to have any urgent black fridays tasks and it is safe to say that I am very much looking forward to having the day off!

While I am not suggesting to make no black friday purchases, because I will likely order a couple of things if the price appears better than usual, but I don’t plan on spending my entire day focused on shopping.

There are a few black friday campaigns that I am really excited about and wanted to share. These companies are doing black friday a little differently and I have all the respect for them for doing that. As retailers even if you don’t want to participate in the traditional black friday deals you are almost forced to if you want to stand a chance compared to your competition. Here are a few of the campaigns that I give major cutos to for doing something different and being willing to risk profit dollars to do it.

REI #optoutside

Opt outside is the campaign that REI launched four years ago where they actually close their doors for the day and encourage their employees and customers to get outside!

I can’t say that I have opted for outside for prior black fridays (since I have typically worked) but this year my fiance and I are planning to do a hike that we have been discussing for awhile. Party Rock is a hike that is about 15 minutes from my parents place that we will be visiting that overlooks Lake Lure. We are planning to do this in the morning with our pups to tire them out and so that we can earn the drinks we plan on enjoying later in the afternoon :)

Citizenry Campaign

If you are doing some black friday shopping and looking for housewares may I suggest you check out the citizenry. They are doing a black friday fund where their black friday profits will be going towards girls education. Educate Girls is the organization the money will go to and they provide educational opportunities for girls in 100 villages across Rajasthan, India. Bloom & Give is another company that I really like and they will be matching citizentry’s contribution dollar for dollar. I have included a few favorite items that nice gift options below. And even if there is not a purchase you are looking make, if you like their style they are donating $5 to the cause if you join their email list.

Everlane

Or if you are looking to purchase apparel, Everlane is another favorite of mine that is known for their transparency and high quality items that are all made in ethical factories. On black friday they will be donating $13 of every purchase made to fund beach clean up efforts with the partnership of the surfrider foundation. They have a goal of raising over $200,000, enough to keep 20,000 pounds of garbage out of the ocean. So if there are any items you think would be a great gift for a friend or family member black friday would be a great time to make that purchase. Here are a few items that make great gifts and none are over $100.