Black Friday: Covid-19 Style
Did you go Black Friday shopping this year? Although I had an outside perspective by working the day after Black Friday and seeing how packed and crazy it was inside our store. I work at a boutique in town but nonetheless, that is not like shopping at an actual mall during Black Friday. It was very packed all day and crowded although when it came to later in the day, it slowed down a lot. I'm just wondering who went this year, and/or if no one went and decided to stay home.
Most people that usually go, cancelled their plans and stayed in due to Covid. It's a personal choice, but when I was working the day after, it was very crowded and packed, although in other stores it wasn’t. Although we were having a great sale, and it was a small business Saturday so that could be why. But I noticed in the mall, they were not crowded at all. This has a lot to do with the fact that people don't want to risk getting Covid, and are too scared to face the truth that they really could get it if they were to go this year.
Covid did change many people's plan of going Black Friday shopping, to avoid the fact that many people weren't going to follow the rules which would make the experience difficult. Many people I'm sure were not socially distant just because if there are so many people, it's so hard to and people don't want to deal with it. Grace Esposito commented on this by saying, “No I don’t go Black Friday shopping. But for me it hasn’t, but for people I know that's how they go Christmas shopping, so they have to find a new way to do that”. Covid has definitely impacted the world in many ways, including events like these being Black Friday.
Do you think it's safe to go Black Friday shopping? This is a question that may be simple to answer for many, yet complex for others. It could be safe, but in so many ways it's not safe, and even with a mask and trying to social distance it's really risky. When talking about this with Grace Esposito, who commented on this by saying “No I don't think so, because there's a lot of people who don’t wear masks, and they go into stores without wearing them. You see the videos online with black friday where people get trampled and windows get smashed etc. So on top of that all, with Covid it's not safe”. Grace has a great point, and with everything going on and the harsh realities of Black Friday in general mixing in Covid, masks and people not social distancing makes it not safe to participate in it in general.