Now the idea of what Black Friday really means is likely changing again. The perception of most shoppers who venture out on Black Friday is that it is a day when retailers offer tremendous bargains to those who stand in line for hours prior to a store opening its doors. Once open, shoppers often run to locate the great deals. These bargain sales would, in some well publicized cases, lead to physical conflict between shoppers looking for a great deal.
The reason these shoppers fought for the products comes down to the simple economic concept of high demand for low supply with a time constraint thrown in just to make shoppers even more motivated to purchase. Retailers view these products as significant loss leaders and because of this they have little intention of upping the supply beyond what is needed to attract initial customer attention. Instead, they hope customers, who could not get the product they stood in line to buy, will instead purchase something else that would be profitable to the retailer.
Now in 2014 things are changing again. According to this Time story, retail king, Walmart, not only says Black Friday now starts on Thursday, but they now say it is a shopping day that lasts five days! During these five days, customers will still obtain products for the same low price they would receive if they were first in line when stores open on Thanksgiving night.
The obvious question is whether competitors will match this move. If they do (and we think they will), we again see the idea of Black Friday becoming blurred and possibly on the road to becoming irrelevant.