By Aaron Simpson
After most people are done stuffing their mouth with turkey and communed with their family over Thursday football, some people are spending Thanksgiving Day looking for sales for the next unofficial holiday-Black Friday shopping.
Known to some as the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday is the start of the holiday shopping season with many stores attracting early bird shoppers with sales that would make them stand in line for hours, even a whole day, for a chance to get a bargain on shopping items.
Even in Hays, Kansas, people from all of Western Kansas come to the city early Friday morning, while most people from Hays go to either Salina or Wichita for their Friday shopping, as explained by Maggie Denning, director of the ASP office in the Kelly Center.
For Black Friday, people decide to go shopping early in the morning for various reasons, whether people would rather have their items in hand, they are nervous about online shopping, to go as a social event, or to escape their house and the people inside of it.
Some people decide that the best way to get their gifts are picking them up from the store. These people would rather bring their gifts home with them that day than wait for them to come from the post office in the mail. Other people decide to buy their gifts in person for fear of online shopping, as there have been breaches of security of people shopping over the holidays past as the infamous security hack of credit cards at Target stores.
Other people decide to go Black Friday Shopping as a social event. Some people decide to go just to spend time with their family members and friends. Younger people, as well as senior citizens, go shopping to make a day experience out of it, a bonding experience that cannot happen online. Even Ms. Denning, who does no usually like shopping on Black Friday, would agree to go if she was in the company of family. There are also people who make a competition out of seeing the best deals they can get from shopping.
Following Black Friday is Cyber Monday, where stores have online bargains similar to those on the previous Friday. Though people enjoy Cyber Monday and the deals it brings, many people enjoy going to the physical store for whatever reason they choose.