At this point, I can only pile on to my partners’ sentiments about Black Friday. But like them, I was shopping this past holiday weekend, and my unique experiences have led to an interesting place: the case for “November Deals “. All of the best retail experiences I had this past weekend had nothing to do with Black Friday or Cyber Monday – they all came from retailers who offered “November Deals “, “Holiday Savings “, or various other wordsmithings of the same simple concept: lowered prices for the holidays, which started well before any one particular weekend, and would either last its entirety or extend well past it.

Why It Works Better Online

If we can agree that consumers use mobile devices in stores (or as we’re all calling it now, for showrooming), it’s to “check online ” to make sure they are not getting ripped off. Plain and simple. No one wants to be a sucker. And so it is with most shoppers on Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday. All they want to know is that they are getting the best possible deal – the best possible price. But with more people choosing to shop online – on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday – the amount of mania in current marketing blitzes gives most consumers pause about when, exactly, that will be. Allow me to give an example.

Every year I have a bunch of young nieces and nephews for whom I buy gifts. I knew I wanted to buy certain gifts for them, but I also had something else in mind. This time of year is when there happens to be the best prices of the year on many of the things I like, as well. In fact, Citi’s retail financial analyst, Deborah Weinswig, appears to have coined a term for this phenomenon: “selving “. It’s a play-on-words that implies we’re “shelving ” our own budgets for items we might have bought for ourselves back in August or September. And I happen to believe that it’s a very real thing, because I’ve been doing it the past few years. I’m not pantry-loading Coke or paper towels, but there was no way I was going to buy expensive music software (software I don’t really need) when the urge hit me back in mid- September knowing full well that it will be marked down 50, 60, or even 75% off on Black Friday.

But here’s where I got confused this year. Very few retailers promote Cyber Monday until after Black Friday is over – even online pureplay retailers. They promote Black Friday just like everyone else. How could they not, right? And they can’t confuse Joe Public by running two marketing campaigns simultaneously. So when I went to buy software online on Friday (from a site promising me “the best prices of the year “), I had reason to pause. Would this be the best price? This stuff ain’t cheap, and it was only X% off. Would it be Y% off on Monday? And it didn’t stop there. I also had another large-ticket item I wanted to buy: a new computer to run the stuff.

In both cases I shopped several different retailers, and in both cases I had options that made it an easy decision to make. I bought a $2500 audio-specific computer from a retailer who let me know that this was the holiday price. It wouldn’t be any more or less on Friday or Monday, that it was a November deal. And I bought a couple hundred dollars of audio software from a different retailer who told me the same thing. And I’m glad I did, because the “best prices of the year ” Black Friday site ran a “Really, honestly, the best prices of the year ” Cyber Monday campaign – with the exact same prices. And I’m glad I didn’t feed that beast.

In fact, when I went back and looked in my inbox and spam filter, I had emails from numerous different retailers who hit me with Black Friday promotions, only to turn around and hit me with Cyber Monday promotions starting the very next day, or worse yet, “now continuing through the weekend, ” including such unlikely gift candidates as my online savings bank and the company that does RSR’s corporate press releases. I gotta say, it all seemed pretty silly to me.

Consumers are going to be shopping online more next year than they were this year – more the year after that. It’s not sustainable to keep putting the bait and switch on them, to create false urgency, or to risk further training that a better deal is around the corner; it’s even less sustainable to do it within the course of a few hours. As they become more sophisticated online, don’t you think it’s time they get the more sophisticated marketing they deserve?

Why It Would Work Better for Stores (and, wait for it… People)

I didn’t get away with an online-only report. I went to Walmart on Thanksgiving night. (On the way I heard a Pier One radio commercial, where a woman was explaining that Black Friday sounded too dark to her, and that she’d prefer an event that was uplifting, colorful, and didn’t require pepper spray. Great campaign, and I’m betting it resonated with Pier One shoppers). I didn’t want to go, but in the name of research, I pulled in at 9:30 pm. The store didn’t open until 1 am, and the line was fairly unimpressive. Maze-like barricades were set up outside the store to accommodate an insane number of people, but at most, I’d say there were about 60 in line. Those who were looked accustomed to hunting more than just bargains: lots of outdoorsy, folding chairs and camouflaged jackets, hats and blankets. I politely started a conversation with the family at the front of the cue (how they were doing, what time they got there, which item had them most excited), but the matriarch of the family kept her back to me while telling me they had zero interest in being friendly. Her teenaged son, however, looked up from the flyer he was poring over to let me know that they’d been there since 7am. They missed their entire Thanksgiving. For what? “The great deal on the fireplace. ” Then he averted his gaze back to his circular, ogling the pages of Walmart items as he had been for who knows how many hours.

Now I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think many teenage boys ask for a fireplace for Christmas. If I had to guess, it would be that these people were well below the poverty line and this fireplace was going to be a source of warmth for them this New England winter; it was going to be in use well before December 25^th. And this was the best deal they were going to get on it this year, and they knew it. Which means they missed Thanksgiving; I’m betting a lot of economically challenged people did. Now you can tell me that I’m making too many assumptions, but all I know is if that you had been there with me, you would have agreed that it didn’t seem particularly holiday cheery. To say nothing of the employees forced to miss one of our most treasured national holidays.

I hope Nikki’s right, that this holiday is dead, and I yearn for a day when more retailers opt for a month – a week – even a 4 day weekend – of solid, sustainable deals. More retailers roll out their holiday selection the day after Halloween anyhow – why not just start a November Deal campaign at the same time? Sales performance would be just as good, if not better, and there’d be a lot more joy to the world.