Business
‘To sustain the ride, they started to dilute it’: How Black Friday became a retail letdown
Black Friday early morning shoppers rush in as the doors are opened at a Walmart store in Fairfax, Virginia, Nov. 28, 2008.
Gerald Martineau | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Black Friday has long been defined by massive crowds, rock-bottom prices and rabid consumers willing to bite, scratch and claw their way to the best deals of the season. But these days, retail’s biggest holiday looks a bit different.
Stores are opening their doors later, foot traffic is flat, online shopping is up and, in a world where Black Friday begins in September, consumers are wary, unsure if the deals they’re getting are even that good.
“The integrity of the event is pretty much gone,” said Mark Cohen, former CEO of Sears Canada, who spent a decade as the director of retail studies at Columbia Business School. “Back in the day, a Black Friday price was the best you could ever find on something … never to be seen again. In today’s day and age, promotional pricing just gets better and better from a consumer’s point of view the closer you get to the holiday.”
A line forms for the 4 a.m. Black Friday opening at Kohl’s department store in Pleasanton, California, Nov. 27, 2009.
Michael Macor | San Francisco Chronicle | Hearst Newspapers | Getty Images
While Black Friday remains a critical day for many retailers and is still arguably the most popular shopping day of the year, it’s no longer defined by the in-person experience. Millions of shoppers are expected to visit malls, big-box stores and specialty retailers on Friday, but millions more are expected to stay at home and shop online from their phones and computers.
That means a shift in strategy for retailers that have long gone all in on Black Friday, including Walmart, Target and Macy’s. Some, such as Kohl’s, are launching their holiday sales earlier in the season. Others, such as Walmart, are spacing out promotions in separate events — one in mid-November, another over the holiday weekend and a final, one-day event on Cyber Monday. Many others plan to stay closed on Thanksgiving but will still have deals online during the holiday.
“I still recall queuing up outside stores waiting for those special deals that every retailer would advertise,” said Denish Shah, the department chair and professor of marketing at Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business. “Whereas now it goes over weeks, over multiple days, and most of the time the consumers are doing it from the comfort of their home through online sales.”
For the last six years, more people shopped online on Black Friday than in-store, and foot traffic has been relatively flat following a post-Covid spike, according to data from the National Retail Federation and Placer.ai, an analytics firm that uses anonymized data from mobile devices to estimate overall visits to locations.
Since 2021, Black Friday store visits have consistently been more than 50% higher than the daily average for the full year, but the amount of foot traffic stores are getting on the day after Thanksgiving isn’t really growing, data from Placer.ai shows.
From 2023 to 2025, the number of millennials and Generation X consumers planning to make the majority of their purchases on Black Friday has dropped. It’s largely flat for Gen Z and baby boomer shoppers over that time period, according to data from the Bank of America Institute.
Meanwhile, the amount of money people are spending during the so-called Turkey 5 – the period of shopping days spanning Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday – has declined for two straight years, according to the NRF. Between 2019 and 2024, spending fell nearly 13%.
That decline is expected to continue this year, with consumers planning to spend 4% less on average during the Turkey 5, according to a recent Deloitte survey.
“There is still going to be a day of highlights from retailers, whether it is door busters, … certain additional promotions, etc.,” said Tiffany Yeh, a managing director and partner with Boston Consulting Group’s consumer practice. “But it is more muted.”
How Black Friday lost its edge
When the modern-day version of Black Friday became popularized in the 1980s, it took an entire year of planning to pull off, Cohen said.
“The art was to convince a vendor to give you an enormous discount on cost so that you could create this tremendously compelling offer to the consumer that would then … benefit you for the balance of the holiday season,” he recalled. “But it required an enormous amount of work.”
Retailers had to pick the perfect product, set the perfect price and make sure their competitors didn’t get wind of their promotional plans. Then, they had to make sure they ordered enough inventory to sell out, but not so early that it would cause riots.
Black Friday shoppers pour in to a Best Buy store in Los Angeles at 5 a.m. on Nov. 28, 2008.
Jewel Samad | AFP | Getty Images
But over time, as Black Friday became more popular, retailers began extending the shopping holiday so their biggest sales tailwind of the year could last longer than a single day. First, stores opened earlier Friday morning, then they began opening on Thanksgiving, and then, promotions began the day before. When consumers began expecting discounts on more than a handful of products, promotions were spread to items in every department.
“In other words,” Cohen said, “to sustain the ride, they started to dilute it.”
As discounts spread across the store, the operational feat behind inventory and staffing became even more challenging to manage, leading retailers to spread out promotions even earlier, Yeh said.
“It’s always been a tough one to really staff up labor so significantly for a short period of time,” she said. “If it’s only for a day, people are not going to necessarily want to sign up for that, versus, if it’s for a longer season, then you’re more likely to get the necessary team members and also be able to train them.”
At the same time, consumer habits began to shift in the backdrop.
Are Black Friday deals still worth it?
Online shopping had been on a slow and steady rise for 20 years, but during the Covid-19 pandemic, adoption skyrocketed. Now, retailers don’t need to put on as big of an in-person show on Black Friday, because online sales are increasingly outpacing those in stores.
Stretching Black Friday into a seasonlong event also makes it easier for consumers to spread out their own spending, Shah said.
“November and December are two different pay periods for many consumers,” he said. “It makes a difference if they can spread their spending across two pay periods rather than just one.”
Of course, there’s also debate about how good the discounts actually are on Black Friday, especially in a soft economy where retailers are leaning heavily on promotions to drive sales at the same time they’re raising prices to offset tariffs.
People crowd the first floor of Macy’s department store in New York as they open for Black Friday sales at midnight on Nov. 23, 2012.
Stan Honda | AFP | Getty Images
“Rampant discounting” across the industry — before, during and after the holiday shopping season — has left many consumers feeling “skeptical” about promotions overall, said Sonia Lapinsky, the head of consulting firm AlixPartners’ global fashion practice. Some promotions this holiday season could also be disguising price increases, notching the cost back down to what it was before the ticket price was raised, said Lapinsky.
“They’ve had the power to cross-shop and look for these discounts, and now there’s just this lack of trust,” Lapinsky said. “They’re tired of doing that, and there’s a lack of trust that they’re actually getting the value piece of it.”
For example, brands like Gap, Levi Strauss and Under Armour started their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving, and the promotions were comparable to those offered earlier in the season.
“The whole idea of creating urgency is kind of goofy and gone,” Cohen said. “Like so many headlines that purportedly offer a deal, the deal is something of a scam.”
One in five UK grocery trips involves at least one missing item, adding up to roughly £2.1 billion in “displaced” sales, according to a report.
As a result, 44% of consumers say they have switched to another supermarket or added in a visit to an alternative grocer in the past year to find an item they need – rising to almost two thirds of shoppers under 45, a study by DHL Supply Chain and the consultancy Retail Economics found.
Almost six in 10 shoppers (59%) said availability is a main reason they shop across multiple stores, and one in three now prioritised availability over price, a survey of 2,000 UK households suggests.
Meanwhile, convenience stores accounted for around one fifth of grocery sales but made up almost half of all displaced spending because of gaps on shelves.
Some 63% of shoppers believe availability is worse in convenience stores.
Nick Archer, managing director of convenience and consumer at DHL Supply Chain, said: “The research shows that even small stock gaps can have a significant impact on how shoppers feel about a retailer.
“Despite the pressure on shoppers’ wallets, loyalty is being driven by more than price.
“In a market where customers can switch stores with ease, availability is much more than an operational metric. Being competitive in today’s market requires precision.”
Retail Economics chief executive Richard Lim said: “In today’s environment of busy lifestyles, hybrid working and smaller, more frequent shopping trips, customers expect to find what they need quickly and easily.
“This is not only limited to grocery, but in all retail sectors, from fashion to beauty.
“Convenience comes down to having products there when the customer needs them, and availability has become the clearest sign of reliability.
“Retailers who get it right will be the ones who earn trust and lasting loyalty.”
Business
Shree Ram Twistex IPO Lists At 30% Discount, Clean Max Falls 20% In Debut Trade: Should You Buy, Sell Or Hold?
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Shares of Shree Ram Twistex Ltd and Clean Max Enviro Energy Solutions Ltd make lacklustre stock market debuts on March 2.
IPO Listings of Shree Ram Twistex Ltd and Clean Max Enviro Energy Solutions Ltd.
Shares of Shree Ram Twistex Ltd and Clean Max Enviro Energy Solutions Ltd made lacklustre stock market debuts on March 2, listing at steep discounts to their issue prices amid a sharp broader market sell-off triggered by escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
At 01:57 pm, the Sensex tumbled over 1,800 points, slipping below the 79,500 level; meanwhile, Nifty dropped below the 24,650 level.
Shree Ram Twistex lists at sharp discount
Shree Ram Twistex opened at Rs 68 on NSE, down 34.61% from its issue price of Rs 104, and at Rs 70 on BSE, marking a decline of 32.69%. The company’s market capitalisation stood at Rs 275.83 crore after listing.
Despite the weak debut, the IPO had seen strong investor demand, receiving 43.66 times subscription. The Rs 110.24-crore issue was entirely a fresh issue of up to 1.06 crore shares priced in the Rs 95-104 band.
Shivani Nyati, Head of Wealth at Swastika Investmart Ltd, said, “The muted listing reflects cautious sentiment and possible profit booking, even though the IPO was subscribed 43.66 times, with very strong demand in the retail and NII categories.”
She added that proceeds will be used for captive solar and wind power plants, debt repayment, and working capital support, which could lower energy costs over time.
“Volatility may persist in the short term. High-risk investors can consider holding with a strict stop loss at Rs 60. Fresh entry is advisable only after the stock shows signs of stability and buying support,” she said.
Clean Max falls sharply after listing
Clean Max Enviro Energy Solutions listed at Rs 960 on NSE, an 8.83% discount to its upper price band of Rs 1,053, and at Rs 952.20 on BSE, down 9.57%. During the session, the stock dropped as much as about 20% from its opening levels. The firm’s market valuation stood at Rs 10,111.54 crore.
The Rs 3,100-crore IPO saw moderate demand, getting subscribed 94%. The issue comprised a fresh issue worth Rs 1,200 crore and an offer-for-sale of Rs 1,900 crore.
Nyati said, “While the long term business outlook remains structurally positive, the weak listing indicates near term caution and limited immediate upside visibility.”
She advised caution for investors: “Allottees may hold if risk appetite is high but should maintain a strict stop loss at Rs 900. Fresh investors are advised to wait for price stability and strong demand support before considering new positions.”
Business fundamentals vs listing sentiment
Shree Ram Twistex manufactures cotton yarn, while Clean Max operates in the renewable energy solutions space, providing solar, wind, hybrid power and carbon credit services for commercial and industrial clients.
Analysts note that weak listing performance does not necessarily reflect long-term fundamentals, particularly when broader market sentiment is risk-averse. However, steep listing discounts often indicate either aggressive IPO pricing or short-term liquidity pressure.
Should investors buy, sell or hold?
For Shree Ram Twistex, experts suggest only high-risk investors consider holding with tight risk management, while new investors should wait for price discovery. For Clean Max, the recommendation is similar: hold only if risk appetite is high and avoid fresh positions until stability returns.
In both cases, analysts stress that listing day performance should not be the sole investment metric; sustained earnings visibility, balance-sheet strength and institutional participation over the coming quarters will determine whether these stocks recover or continue to lag.
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March 02, 2026, 14:42 IST
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