Black Friday is a Trap

Black Friday is a trap that has been the unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season since the 1980s. It became synonymous with “doorbuster” deals—heavily discounted TVs, blenders, and other must-have items that drew eager crowds to stores before sunrise.

What followed was often a chaotic frenzy, with shoppers jockeying for bargains and even occasional scuffles breaking out. For retailers, it marked the start of a profitable season, as sales surged and profits moved “into the black,” cementing Black Friday as a hallmark of modern consumer culture.

It’s safe to say Black Friday isn’t what it used to be, and that’s probably for the best. Over time, growing awareness of its impact on retail workers led many stores to shut their doors on Thanksgiving, allowing employees to spend the holiday with their families instead of prepping for the next day’s chaos.

Meanwhile, holiday shopping has shifted online, and the adrenaline rush of snagging a one-day deal has been replaced by an endless cycle of flash sales, Cyber Monday promos, and loyalty rewards events that stretch across the entire month.

Future Perfect deputy editor Izzie Ramirez has taken a close look at the state of American consumerism, examining how our habits have turned into a cycle of buying, using, and discarding staggering amounts of stuff every year.

Her reporting also highlights a troubling trend: the declining quality of the products we buy. From household appliances to basic items like underwear, it’s clear that many of the things we rely on simply aren’t made to last.

I sat down with her to explore how Americans’ shopping habits have evolved and what the looming threat of high tariffs could mean for big-ticket items like appliances. We also dug into how sales events like Black Friday are carefully designed to keep us spending—often at the expense of our wallets and the environment.

Our conversation, which has been edited for clarity and length, sheds light on the deeper forces driving these changes and the ripple effects of our collective shopping behaviors.

Also Read: Walmart’s Official Black Friday Sale is Live

Lavanya Ramanathan: The quality of what we buy seems to be getting worse. Can you talk about that, especially as we head into a season where Americans will be buying so much?

Izzie Ramirez: First off, I want to say I’m not anti-shopping—far from it. I actually love shopping. Material things can be fun, and materialism can even be fun—until it’s not.

I started digging into this topic because I had a personal frustration: my brand-new bra was terrible. And it made me wonder—shouldn’t new things be better? Isn’t that the promise of capitalism? Better products, better quality? Yet, that’s not what we’re seeing.

I wanted to understand the bigger picture of mass production—why things are being made the way they are and why repairability is becoming a thing of the past. It’s an important topic because I truly believe people want to buy products that bring them joy, last a long time, and seamlessly fit into their lives.

It’s incredibly frustrating when that doesn’t happen. You spend your hard-earned money on something, expecting quality, only to feel let down when the product doesn’t deliver on its promise. It’s not just a waste of money—it’s a broken trust between consumers and manufacturers.

It’s not that companies are deliberately setting out to make lower-quality products. Take my bra, for example—it’s not about wanting to make it worse. It’s about cost. For the price they’re charging, it’s simply not possible to produce the same quality as before without cutting corners.

Something has to give, and it usually comes down to labor or materials—or a bit of both. Either the workers are paid less, the materials are downgraded, or both compromises happen at once. The end result? Products that just don’t meet the expectations we have when we buy them.

Given all this, how should we approach Black Friday? There are plenty of tempting deals—like a TV for $50—but are these bargains actually worth it, or are we just throwing money away on something that won’t last? Is there a way for consumers to truly come out ahead during these sales?

I’ll admit it—I’m about to sound like a hypocrite. I’ve always thought Black Friday was more trouble than it’s worth. But if tariffs get enacted, there might actually be a case for shopping during the sales, especially when it comes to bigger-ticket items like washing machines, dishwashers, and other major appliances.

Here’s why: tariffs could significantly drive up the cost of these globally-produced items. Many of these appliances rely on parts from all over the world, and if tariffs hit, they could get a lot more expensive. And if prices don’t rise, we may see a sharp decline in their quality—fast.

In most cases, that’s actually bad advice. There’s a lot of psychology and science behind why we buy things, especially around events like Black Friday. The pressure to buy now feels real because we think time is running out—but that’s a lie. The truth is many of the sales you see are repeated year after year.

Also Read: Black Friday and Cyber Monday E-Bike Deals 2024

Take the Sephora sale, for example. It drives me crazy when people act like they’ll never get the chance to shop the members sale again. In reality, it happens two or three times a year. This is all part of the “scarcity mindset” retailers love to play on, convincing us that if we don’t act fast, we’ll miss out forever.

You’ve also written about shopping hauls, which is part of a larger shift in how we shop today. We’re buying more online, and it’s easier than ever to get products from all over the world. There’s also been a boom in new brands—especially direct-to-consumer companies selling everything from jewelry to clothing. So, what’s really happening to the act of shopping itself?

Hauls are when people buy dozens of items—10, 15, even 20 at a time—and often show them off on social media. They’re picking up products from brands like Amazon, Temu, Shein, and Abercrombie & Fitch.

What’s concerning about haul culture is how it encourages a mindset of scarcity: “You need this right now.” It normalizes mass consumption and the idea of regularly buying a lot of things at once, turning what was once an occasional splurge into a regular habit of overspending.

If you’re not spending big, you might end up shopping at places like Shein, where you can find $1 T-shirts. But this kind of pricing normalizes wages that are dangerously low for workers—and comes at a high cost to the planet.

A lot of what you’re describing feels like a shift in our shopping habits. There’s a growing trend in our consumer culture, too—an insatiable demand for the new, always chasing the next thing, no matter how fleeting.

A big part of this shift comes from the excitement we feel when we buy something new—it’s like a dopamine rush. We crave that feeling of getting something, anything, to give us a quick thrill. Social media plays a huge role in fueling this, alongside the global scale of retail and the endless new brands entering the market.

It’s also a whole new level of consumer manipulation. Companies create this false sense of urgency, convincing us that we need to buy now or we’ll miss out forever. It’s all part of a strategy to keep us hooked on the cycle of constant consumption.

Yes, there’s definitely a demand, but companies also know they can exploit that desire. It’s like the ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail—a never-ending cycle. It will keep going unless we make a conscious decision to break free and say no.