Black Friday is on the way. Across the internet the sales have already begun. Most of the brick and mortar retailers will wait until Friday, or at least Thursday afternoon, to kick off their own sales. The day has become an incredibly important one for retailers in the United States, but that doesn’t mean it’s doing them any good.

Black Friday is a form of group psychosis on the part of retailers. It is unclear whether or not the day actually causes people to spend more, but it is likely that Black Friday simply draws forward a huge amount of spending from the rest of the holiday season and compresses it into a single day. It’s true that if a retailer skipped the sales it would lose out on millions, or billions, in revenue, but that doesn’t make the day a good one for companies.

Black Friday Psychosis

It’s clear that retailers bring in huge amounts of money by publicizing major discounts for Black Friday. It’s clear that if Walmart announced that it was skipping the tradition shareholders would be angry. It’s not clear if the day is a healthy obsession for retailers in the United States, and there’s very few reasons to hold the tradition as sacred.

First of all, Black Friday isn’t even all that old. The celebration of retail consumerism has only been the busiest shopping day of the year since the middle of the last decade. It’s not an old tradition, and it’s not all that embedded in the popular psyche. As the sales get more competitive, margins get eaten and Black Friday becomes damaging to retailers.

The proof that Black Friday has become a psychosis lies in the behavior of both crowds and retailers in recent years. People are hurt and killed for low priced television on Black Friday. Friday now starts on Thursday in many States. An end may need to be put to Black Friday psychosis.

How To kill Black Friday

Retailers may want to kill Black Friday at some point in the coming years, but it won’t be easy. The holiday is still reasonably young in its mass appeal, and that makes it easier to get rid of, but retailers are still stuck in their expansionist phase. When the first of them realize that Black Friday harms their business it will be too late to stop it easily.

There is probably no way to kill Black Friday easily. It will have to run its natural course. Sales will get more ridiculous and crowds more abrasive until retailers are cut to the bone and stop improving the holiday. Another day of sales will begin to pop up in its place, possibly earlier in the year, and relieve some of the pressure.

Black Friday is a type of madness, but it appears to be here to stay. Retailers are going to have to knuckle down and deal with the crowds. Everyone else should ignore the sales.