As you know, Black Friday gets its name from the financial phrase, “in the black.” Specifically, many retailers merely get by just for this one day, when they can get their financials in the profitable side of the column. There’s a reason why we don’t have a celebration called Red Friday.
But that might as well what we should call all the people camping out like invalids for Black Friday sales. According to southwest Florida’s local news network WINK, residents have already camped out Tuesday night in front of major retailers. And that early start is extremely reasonable compared to some “professional” Black Friday shoppers, who camp out for weeks.
Furthermore, what’s witnessed in Florida is something that’s repeated throughout the nation. Yet it demonstrates why Americans are so out of touch with reality.
Consider that the average salary in the U.S. is $56,516 in 2017. Barring taxes, that amounts to just under $1,087 per week. On a daily basis, we’re talking a little over $216. Thus, for every day that an average person takes off from work, he/she must save $216 just to break even.
Granted, you can easily save $216 for an expensive electronic good. But if that’s the only savings you get from Black Friday, you might as well have stayed home.
Economics of Black Friday Don’t Make Sense
Hence, it’s easy to see why the U.S. is steadily turning into a Third World country. Our people simply lack common sense. Events such as Black Friday further demonstrate that this negative trend isn’t abating anytime soon.
When you do the math, you’ll realize that the more people spend waiting for their sales, the more uneconomical the entire effort becomes. Camping outside a retailer for two business days means that a shopper must save $432 to break even. At one week (five business days) for extreme shoppers, the breakeven point becomes $1,080.
Not only that, as one makes more money, waiting outside for Black Friday makes exponentially less sense. For example, if you make $100,000, you’d make nearly $385 a day without taxes. Thus, for the high-income earner, their savings must reflect their economic value to make sense.
But at places like Best Buy, Target or Walmart, they’re not selling real estate, where the savings would make sense. Instead, they’re selling largely dumb electronic goods. Sure, you can get a massive flat-screen TV, but those are once-in-a-decade purchases.
However, Black Friday sales obviously run annually. And in many ways, the shoppers who participate are addicted to them. Why? All I can say is that there’s something in the water here, and it’s making our people bat-sh-t crazy.