How was your Halloween? I hope it was good. What are your plans for Thanksgiving? Hold that thought. It’s just two days after Halloween, over three weeks before Thanksgiving. Amazon prepares for the holiday shopping season.
The day after Halloween, Amazon launched Black Friday deals as they begin their countdown to the traditionally big shopping day. We can expect deep deals in computers, smartphones, electronics, clothes, toys, and other products until December 22. Like last year, Amazon is starting it’s Black Friday special on November 1. In fact, Black Friday for Amazon is so big that they had a Black Friday sale in July. We all know about how Walmart showed them up. But despite that, that Black Friday special did better than last year’s Black Friday sales on the real Black Friday! This year, Amazon Prime members will see over 30,000 lightning deals. But to do even better, you need Prime Early Access. This will give subscribers a 30-minute head start ahead of the big crowd. Imagine lines of people camping out all night in front of their favorite store. But right before the store opens to this mob, you get to skip the line, shop for everybody on your list, and get out of there before the mob hits the store.
My question is: Why are we even talking about holiday shopping on November 2? I’m just reporting the technology trends I see. One thing about it, things aren’t what they used to be, neither is Black Friday. Now, people are actually shopping on Thanksgiving Day. I think that’s just plain blasphemous, and I applaud those taking a stand against it. But it just goes to show how things are changing. And look at how extreme Black Fridays are getting now. They’re starting earlier, often at 12:01 am Friday morning. The lines are getting longer. The mobs are getting meaner. So is Amazon forcing an early holiday shopping season down our throats? Or is this a smart move?