Every year the holidays come around, and with them, the shopping season. Everyone is happy to spend time together with their family and money on their presents.
Since the beginning of the commercialization in the United States, retailers have slowly become an integral part of the holiday season. They have even earned themselves holidays dedicated to shoppings: Black Friday, and more recently, Cyber Monday.
According to BusinessInsider.com, people are getting less excited for the new iPhones every time they come out. This is due to three things: the durability of every generation of phones, the slight difference, and the planned obsolescence between each generation. These factors make the switch unnecessary for Iphone users for multiple years until software changes mandate it or the user is a phone fanatic.
While this is true for iPhones in particular, the overall amount of money spent on Cyber Monday every year has consistently risen from 12 to 20 percent.
Cecilie Schieffer, senior, enjoys shopping, but tries to remember the reason for the season. “I definitely don’t think the holiday season is all about shopping. I feel obligated to make the people I love happy, but not really from buying them things,” she said. Schieffer is one of few, however, as more people every year buy more online or on Black Friday.
With the inception of these shopping holidays, businesses have made new plans: debut items and stock up for November. Economics teacher Philip George explained how important the holiday season is for a company’s annual profits. “Many retailers don’t even enter making a profit until the holiday shopping season. It is key to the success of many, many retail businesses. Obviously, this is due to the natural raise in demand for many goods and services during this period of the year,” George said.
These shopping holidays are so important that many businesses rely on them to function. Less people are buying items outside of the “shopping season” and are condensing more into the designated shop days. According to the The Guardian, “For the independent retailers, many of whom rely on festive season spending for as much of half of their annual sales.”
These are many reasons businesses have released products before the holiday season. Whether to capitalize on getting a product sold quickly and spread a company’s influence or to make use of the holiday season euphoria, companies have taken advantage of it and will no doubt continue to do so.
