“UNIVERSITY OF
INCARNATE WORD”
ENGLISH COMPOSITION I
05–22-2017
PROFESSOR: RAYMUNDO RODRÍGUEZ
DEGREE: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
PUPILS:
BLANCO CERAME VANESSA
OROZPE FRIAS DIANA KARINA
SOSA SÁNCHEZ SARAI
SEMESTER: 4th
TURN: Morning
GROUP: N4MA
THEME: TRADITIONAL CELEBRATIONS
“BLACK FRIDAY”
2
Index
Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3
Is Black Friday Ok? …………………………………………………………………………………………… 4
Black Friday an Influence in Economy ………………………………………………………………….. 8
The Raw Truth of Black Friday ………………………………………………………………………….. 13
Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 17
Works cited …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 19
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Introduction
“Black Friday” is a day celebrated on Friday, November between 24th and 29th
after Thanksgiving. It has become a symbol for the United States, a special day in which
almost all stores come out with special prices to attract consumers’ attention.
The term Black Friday was named like this since 1960 in order to mark the kickoff
of the Christmas shopping season. The word “Black” refers to a profit represented in
stores by moving from red, indicating a loss, to black, the profit expected.
During this day people stand in line for hours before the store is opened so that
they grab the product offered for sale cheaply than it is usually given. According to the
BlackFriday.com website: “For bargain hunters, if there is a biggest festival in a year,
that would be, no doubt, the Black Friday. In last few years(starting from 2013 to be
precise), Black Friday Sales have started way before Friday-with some stores starting
their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving day and some even starting on Wednesday.”
On this occasion we are going to aboard topics such as consumerism, economy
impact, benefits and disadvantages related with international business in a tradition
known around the world.
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Centro Universitario Incarnate Word
Sarai Sosa Sánchez
Subject: English Composition 1
Instructor: Raymundo Rodríguez
Date: Monday, May 22nd, 2017
Is Black Friday Ok?
Capitalism and consumerism are considered tied up by most of people, but they
are not linked at all. Capitalism is a socio economic system that makes producers and
consumers to develop economic activities where the state cannot interfere. On the other
hand, consumerism is an ideology where people acquire goods and services they do not
need.
Consumerism has become a cycle that involves a consumer and a company
because they buy stuff from them, in order to feel satisfied, no matter if it is just for a
moment. In many countries, this situation has become a part of their lives, and as
consequence special days have emerged, such as “Black Friday”.
“Black Friday”, the day after Thanksgiving, is a day were companies take
advantage of all marketing strategies to sell their products. It is waited anxiously by all
consumers because it has become a holiday shopping season. During this day, people
lose the criteria of wants and needs and buy everything they can without caring the
debts they are acquiring; where promotions made by specific brands encouraged
consumers to shop over this special days. As reported by the National Retail Federation
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and Prosper Insights & Analytics: “When it comes to where consumers shopped over
the weekend, the survey found that 44 percent went online and 40 percent shopped in–
store. The most popular day to shop online was Black Friday, up 1.3 percent from last
year to 74 percent.”
According to Matt Walsh, who writes for the Blaze.com: “The fact that our society
has even made it possible for a human being to do nothing but sit outside of an
electronics retailer for 22 days” it totally represents the image of consumerism.
Consumerism on Black Friday consists on buying for every reason that comes to
your mind. Furthermore, waiting until the shop is opened becomes worth it since you
find everything you want at an accessible price. A price by which consumers are willing
to risk their lives in order to obtain the goods and services.
The National Retail Federation affirmed: “Fifty percent of consumers that shopped
in store indicated that the deals were too good to pass up. While another 32 percent of
consumers shopped in store to continue their family Thanksgiving/Black Friday
traditions”. Black Friday, not only has become a tradition among American people, but
also has created a controversy among consumers because of the violence it is used to
gain the product by which people are fighting for in the mall, and the impact that
represents on the planet.
Sam Binkley, assistant professor of sociology at Emerson College stated: “Black
Friday has been designated international ‘Buy Nothing Day’ by the anti-consumerist
campaign group, Adbusters.” A campaign that represents a day of protest against the
culture of consumption. Since 1997, consumers against Black Friday have tried to
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convince people to take part on this campaigns where they must stop buying stuff for 24
hours. The UK website for Buy Nothing Day says: “The rules are simple, for 24 hours
you will detox from buying stuff – anyone can take part provided they spend a day
without spending!”
A large amount of people wait for Black Friday’s discounts and special offers in
the interest of making large purchases like a new computer, washing machine, a
cellphone, etc. On this occasion, Black Friday encourage people to over-consume by a
creating a sense of urgency on consumers which impulse them to buy, and as a result
we get an overconsumption of unnecessary goods, in the way they make consumers
feel this day is the only time of the year that they are going to be able to afford all the
stuff they want.
Black Friday can be blamed of how consumerism has developed in the United
States, but not all of consumers take part of this cycle because they want it too, some of
them just take part of it in order to make extra money to help their families. Moreover,
there are many shoppers who take advantage of sales so as to manage their money by
selling Christmas gifts at a better price than in other seasons, so that consumers can
feel they got a really good deal by buying it.
One of the highest selling product categories on Black Friday is fast fashion, a
strategy used by stores where they create clothes designed to attend a trend, so that as
soon as the season is over, consumers will go out to buy more of them because it is
hard for a consumer to resist the major fashion brands. Most of the clothes on sale
during this season are cheap, and as consequence they do not last long, that is why
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they have an extreme environmental impact; similarly Greenpeace has shown fashion
production uses lots of water and pollutes rivers with toxic chemicals.
Nowadays, we consume and get rid of clothes faster than we used to, in a way
our planet cannot handle it. Greenpeace researchers found: “The life cycle of consumer
