Why are these sales causing so much turmoil, possible stampedes, and lots of consumer complaints?
Sharron Lennon, the Irma Ayers Professor of Fashion and Apparel Studies at the University of Delaware is trying to find the answer.
She spent the last three years observing and surveying shoppers in an effort to know what motivates so many consumers to turn into jerks on the day following Thanksgiving.
The culprit? Effort.
"If people put a lot of effort into their Black Friday shopping, those were the people who were likely to be the misbehavers on Black Friday," Lennon said.
That effort includes coupon clipping and extensive planning, choosing which stores to visit when for which advertised items.
Also, when consumers' expectations are out of line with reality, problems ensued.
For instance, if a shopper expected to get the deeply discounted laptop advertised in a flyer and lines up in the cold outside the store before it opens, only to find the store has just a handful in stock, she might get angry and misbehave.
Lennon wanted to understand customers' motivations and the influence of various factors including crowds, cranky salespeople, long lines and stockouts -- when stores run out of a much-desired discounted item -- so she can make recommendations to reduce consumer misbehavior on Black Friday.
Instead of trying to change consumers, Lennon has targeted her solutions towards retailers since consumers can't control the behavior of others, how many registers are open, how long the lines are, or how sour the employees are.
She suggests stores hand out tickets for items where there's limited stock, and only hand out as many tickets as there are items available.
Lennon also suggests eliminating the need for coupons, since redeeming them involves work for the consumer and the employees at the registers.
Stores should post stockout signs in the front of the store as soon as they run out of an advertised item, thus saving shoppers time and effort fighting the crowds for a product that's been sold out for hours.
To shake things up, Lennon also suggests stores announce unadvertised, unexpected bargains on various items throughout the day. Like an homage to K-mart's famed "blue light special," Lennon thinks it would not only be fun, but it would eliminate some of the planning effort that puts so many consumer on edge.
Lennon and colleagues from the University of Minnesota, Oregon State University, and North Dakota State University plan to publish their findings in a series of upcoming articles. They believe theirs would be the first published research to deal specifically with Black Friday.
For shoppers who refuse to leave the house on Black Friday, many retailers have announced they will be participating in "Cyber Black Friday" where they will offer deep discounts on products online, many with free shipping.
