Holiday shopping begins
Freshman Sarah Barnes browses a 50 percent off Cyber Monday sale on the PacSun website. Shopping holidays began on Thanksgiving and end with Cyber Monday.
November 27, 2017
WEB EXCLUSIVE Holiday shoppers browsed the web today for Cyber Monday deals after the weekend of Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.
“I like Black Friday shopping because it is a big outing, and it’s something fun you can do with your family,” senior Lauren Wasserman, who shopped at Fashion Island in Newport Beach on Friday, said. “But now I can just sit at home, relax and shop on my computer.”
Black Friday sales, beginning on Thanksgiving and continuing until Sunday, begin the holiday shopping season, a period that draws 30 percent of annual retail sales, according to The Balance.
Some consumers, like theology teacher Kate McMichael, abstained from Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping to spend their money supporting small businesses on Saturday.
“We tried to do the Small Business Saturday thing where you intentionally don’t go to big-box stores but choose to go to local privately-owned small businesses and support them,” McMichael, who shopped in the Fairfax and Point Reyes Station areas, said. “It might cost a little more and take a little more time, but it feels good to be connected to your own community and keep small businesses going.”
Sophomore Sunny Stuart says she enjoys Black Friday shopping but does not plan to participate in Cyber Monday.
“Personally, I don’t like to online shop because I feel like things look so different when I try them on in real life,” Stuart, who spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday shopping, said. “I just prefer to go to stores, so I don’t have to send things back.”
Both Wasserman and Stuart said they enjoy Black Friday shopping because it is an activity to do with friends and family outside of the house.
“You’re all together with your family for Thanksgiving, and the next day you can all go out and go shopping together,” Wasserman said. “Even if you don’t get anything it’s fun — like another family activity.”
