As the holiday season starts to peak, it’s that time of year when national retail chains start to gear up for discounted price matches and the inevitable deals that come with Black Friday. The common thing that has been brought up is what this means for the typical family unit as well any social unit in the United States.

It has been consistently seen by the press and has been making it’s way into national attention these changes being seen due to Black Friday’s recent transformation into Black Thursday.

As Thanksgiving falls on this day, many Americans are witnessing many families that are no longer sitting down to eat Thanksgiving dinner but rather waiting in line at the nearest local Best Buy to get the newest HD Smart TV. So this brings up the question to the public, what does this mean to our once wholesome family gathering around the turkey now that this shopping craze has invaded it and is it really special?

Black Friday has existed in some shape or form throughout the decades. This being said, of course the civil war didn’t see Confederate soldiers going to their local Wal-Mart to get the newest, well-built muskets. The first time the term Black Friday was used was due to the financial scandal in 1869 under Grant’s era of presidency, however the earliest notion we have that Black Friday existed in regards to shopping spans all the way back from the 1960’s.

The famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day started in 1924 and later became the day marked before shopping season began. “Black Friday” has since then become a cultural phenomenon and landmark for Americans to get their Christmas shopping done early because of “once in a lifetime” deals. But is it really a unique day to shop?

For one thing, it has been pointed out by many media outlets that luxury items will be “extinct” in their discounted price quickly in retail stores if you are not there in store to purchase it yourself, however, those same luxury items are being sold in their original company’s holiday sales that take place in days before and after this specific “blow-out day” of sales.

Another addition to this argument is online shopping and how recently it has been making a wave in the market of sales during the holiday season. E-commerce is set to expect “online sales to rise 11% in November and December”(Wahba.2015) and will top that with Cyber Monday.

Since people are able to find these same deals elsewhere, on the Internet and in stores, why do we find ourselves sitting outside of Target at 1 a.m. on a Friday? This newfound American holiday has its faults in practice and it doesn’t merit its special podium in the media’s attention.

Black Friday really seems to be is a hurdle in our family’s lives, especially due to major retailers like Target and Wal-Mart moving their special day of sales to Thanksgiving Day. Many families are having to change their Thanksgiving to accommodate their loved one’s working schedules at these stores or their need to get that new Apple watch that is on sale.

As recent as last year there were petitions against these big retailers by the U.S public to stop Black Thursday and allow us to enjoy our Thanksgivings as a whole family and in peace before bolting out to shop for our Christmas presents the next day.

An example of one of the petitions that called to public attention was Hallie Dilworth’s, a freshman in the University of Texas, who stated “Thanksgiving should be spent at home with the family, not pushing through crowds trying to get deals on things we don’t even need.” This year that statement should hold true with the outrageous amount of people in the United States that will be skipping their family time to buy the latest new products in stores.

These products can be found any other day and time, so why obsess over it on this day?