Trending Topics: Social media and shopping
Online and Thanksgiving Day sales have dimmed some of the luster and excitement of Black Friday, but it's still popular here in the United States, and it's growing abroad.
Many of the tweets regarding #BlackFriday concern ads from retailers, but others had shoppers' and workers' welfare in mind.
Protecting your identity was the focus of the personal finance community, such as MoneyTips (@MoneyTipsSocial), which tweeted a link to an article on shopping tips:
That story was joined by many others, including from @USATODAY, which tweeted,
The story included tips on how shoppers could safeguard personal information while online. You might associate online sales only with Cyber Monday, but experts predict shoppers will be almost as busy online on Black Friday. They project $2.48 billion will be sold online Friday, slightly below the Cyber Monday projection of $2.6 billion.
The winners in this heightened awareness for security. Web.com (@webdotcom), which provides online marketing services, tweeted a link to a survey that showed
The tweet linked to a press release on the survey that found, "The survey also found that consumers are more than twice as concerned about online security at large retailers (27 percent concerned) than small business retailers (12 percent concerned)."
The Thanksgiving Day newspapers are loaded with Black Friday ads and if some of them look familiar it's because they are.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (@journalsentinel) tweeted a link to a story about that:
The story looks at how deals at some retailers were identical for three years in a row. Based on that, reporter Gitte Laasby gave her predictions on sales for Black Friday 2015. The tweet included a photo of nearly identically designed ads from 2013 and 2014 with some of the same products and prices.
One of the things you might not expect to see in tweets for Black Friday is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Know, better known as Obamacare. But The Hill (@thehill) tweeted one:
The story wrote about how the federal government and Westfield Shopping Centers teamed up to get out the word about open enrollment at the 40 locations nationwide.
Not everyone is enamored with Black Friday.
One group is holding protests at Walmart — blackfridayprotests.org — for decent wages. Jobs With Justice (@jwjnational), which says it fights for workers' rights and a $15 per hour minimum wage, tweeted a number of messages on how to support Walmart workers, including this:
The decision not to indicted Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown has some calling for #BlackOutFriday, as Forbes (@Forbes) reported,
The group Blackout for Human Rights is urging others to join "a nationwide day of action and united retail boycott. Together we can stand up for victims of police brutality and spark change."
Urban Cusp Magazine (@UrbanCusp) on Wednesday was urging people to
Not so thrilled with what you see as crass consumerism of Black Friday? Neither is @LifeofaPrincess, who tweeted:
The type of mad-dash consumerism has been exported to Europe. CNN International (@cnni) tweeted:
The story from CNN Money said online retailers in Europe were prompted to offer these deals since 2010, when "Amazon introduced the trend to it European customers."
Some British shoppers were still confused, the story noted, and John Lewis, a popular department store in the U.K., offered some history: "'Black Friday' originated in the US, where stores open early with incredible offers and limited time deals the day after Thanksgiving. In 2010, 'Black Friday' very quickly became a permanent fixture on the calendar in the run up to Christmas." http://bit.ly/1xyqvKq
The Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) had a front page story as "Britain prepares for Black Friday."
One of the hottest selling items on Black Friday is guns, according to a tweet from Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) of the Washington Post:
It's based on the number of background checks sought that day. The linked story by Philip Bump shows that "Of the 10 days on which the FBI has conducted the most background checks since December 1998, two are the last two Black Fridays."
Last year, the number of background checks requested on Black Friday doubled that of a normal day in 2013, according to the story, which was remarkable as request spiked throughout the year "as Congress debated new gun restrictions last spring."
Finally, Kohl's (@Kohls) is having fun on Twitter by asking trivia questions and offering prizes. One question Wednesday afternoon was, "Which sport is watched on TV the most during Thanksgiving?" Kohl's tweeted: