November 28, 2025 • 39 mins
Which shopping experience will save you more? Black Friday used to be an exclusive, in-person, physical stores event, but now you can find those sales all over the internet! Then along came Cyber Monday, essentially competing with Black Friday, creating the question of which event will save you more money? Tonight, joining Bradley is Jared Watson, Assistant Professor of Marketing at NYU, who has all the answers!
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Thank you, Ell. I'm Bradley Jay for Dan tonight. It
is wonderful to be with you all on Night Side.
I do want to thank Robert Ciciliano for coming into
the studio and giving us a blistering hour of how
to protect ourselves from bad people on the internet. If
(00:27):
you do the stuff that was recommended, you're going to
be much more protected. And if you forgot any of it,
may I recommend that you find the podcast of that
hour by simply going to Nightside on demand and listening again,
believe it or not, and writing down if you didn't
the stuff to do, because it could make all the
(00:49):
difference in your life. It really could, and you might
want to share it with someone. For example, the person
who called and said that his friend was sending money
somewhere and thought he had made two hundred and forty
thousand dollars should probably share that podcast with his friend.
We're only hours away from Black Friday, and so we
(01:14):
want you to get the most out of it. So
we have an expert on Black Friday here with us,
Jared Watson, Assistant Professor at NYU a marketing professor. We're
going to talk about getting the most from Black Friday
and Cyber Monday. Thank you, sir for being.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
With us, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Absolutely now listen for you listening all out there. I
have some questions that may prompt you to call in
at six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty. Have
you ever participated in the in the wild Black Friday
back in the day, What was that like?
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Share that was like?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
And how is it different now when you go Jared,
I'm asking this to all folks. I'll get you specifically
in a moment. Where do you go for Black Friday?
Do you have a favorite places that you feel is
got the best deals or the best deals for you?
Tell us about the best Black Friday deal you ever got?
Did you really get a good one? And do you
(02:15):
use Cyber Monday instead of Black Friday for convenience? And
what kind of We want to find out what things
are perhaps better bought on Cyber Monday than on Black Friday?
And do you stalk up on anything? Are you a horder? No,
it's got a negative connotation. I should say, are you
a stalker?
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Upper? I will admit to.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Certain stocking up tendencies, and I don't want to overshare,
but I will admit to you as we speak, and
I have ten cases of sardines. You may you may say, what, Well,
you know that's my survival kid.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
I got my go bag and my ten cases of sardines.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Actually I like sardines, and I feared that the price
was going to go up. I found a brand I
liked and another brand had gone out of business, so
I just bought a bunch. And in another stocking up story,
one time, do you remember Sims folks up on the
North Shore. Well, one time I saw that they had
(03:18):
Dulte and Gamana polo shirts, usually about one hundred bucks
or more, even back in the nineties. They were thirty nine,
ninety nine and multiple colors, and I bought wait for it,
not five, not ten, not fifteen, but twenty one. And
(03:38):
you know what, I never regretted it because each one
of them lasted about six months before I started a
look a little old, I give it away.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
So I had Dulte and.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Gamana polo shirts four ten years as a result, So that.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Was a big win.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Other times, when I stock up, it's usually a mistake,
even if the product is still good.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
I just get sick of it, not just give them away.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
So anyway, do you have stories that are like that
about Black Friday? Do you buy stuff maybe you didn't need.
We want to hear your Black Friday story. So now
I turn to you, Shared Watson, and try to get
a little bit first, a little bit of history of
Black Friday.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
I'm sure you've.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Done more research than I, being a professor at all,
but I guess first use of it came from when
a couple of goals speculators back in the late eighteen
hundreds saved that tried a corner the market on gold,
but something bad happened and everything fell apart.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
And then.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
In the fifties down in Philly, down in Philly, a
lot of suburban shoppers and tourists used to flood that
city in advance of the Army Navy football game. Police
had to work over time, and shoplifters took advantage of it.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
It was just a.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Mess down in Philly, and the police call that Black Friday.
And then in the eighties it turned from the turned
red in the red in the black that became Black Friday.
And that's the one we know now, right, John.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
That's it. Yeah, The way we think about Black Friday
today is that it's historically the day where retailers went
from being in debt or in the red to being
in the profit in the black right. And so the
way retailer retailers operated is effectively operating eleven months in
debt for one large holiday push where they made up
(05:34):
the profit for the year. And that's kind of how
we think about it to this day, even though Black
Friday has kind of expanded from a singular day event
to now a multi week Sure.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
So do you remember who was the first to do this?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Because I don't, Oh, good question, I don't off the
top of my head. If I were to guess, no,
it would be one of our main stay departments. I
wouldn't be surprised to know that this was a J. C.
Penny's event or a Bloomingdale's event. But fafter the matter,
(06:12):
given the evolving retail industry, quite a good chance at
whichever retailer started this might not be around anymore today.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Right, so.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
You know, maybe fifteen twenty years past before they figured
out cyber Monday and talk about that transition, or I
should say that addition.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, absolutely, so The whole idea behind Black Friday in
the retail sense is let's tempt people with incredible deals,
get them in store in this fervor, and in this excitement,
they'll go around and they'll buy other things that have
higher profit margins. For the brand challenge with.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I was wondering why I worked for them, because I
was just wondering, do people somehow buy more stuff? Because
do they spend more money? I should say somehow and
talk about that. Why why would you? I don't get it?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Yeah, So starting there, you know, I mean, I think
it's it's the idea of being in that deal mindset, right,
So you're hit over the head with the advertisements, You're
seeing incredible signage. When you're in store, there's an actual feeling, right,
you can actually feel the excitement in the air where
everyone is running and grabbing and saying buy first, think later,
(07:33):
And as a result of that, there's really this kind
of pandemonium in store. Historically, there was so the easiest
way to think about it was there were these doorbusters
where you would have a too good to be true
deal on a television Guess what, there's only one or
two of those in store, and if you're the third
or the tenth or one hundredth person in line for
(07:53):
that product. You don't have that one available anymore. But hey,
here's another pretty good option. We higher price points that retailer.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Were they honest about that? They didn't say, hey, we've
got three TV?
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Did they say we've got three TV?
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yeah? So initially they didn't. And then to your point, right,
the Better Business Bureau stepped in FTC said you can't
communicate these types of deals without being clear about the
opportunities available to consumers. And so now you'll see, you know,
over the last fifteen years or so, you can see
in the flyers guaranteed one in store, guaranteed five in store,
(08:33):
et cetera, to give people some sort of idea about
the likelihood of success if they were shopping for that deal. Yeah,
it's certainly something the government came in and helped regulate
because consumers were being led astray by some of these advertisements.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
So can you talk about the sociological and psychological primitive
thing that we have inside that makes us go nuts
when this deal and makes us by stuff we don't
even need.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Does it go way back to two hundred and fifty
thousand years ago, the first you know, you'd see, say,
I say, the tooth tiger had taken down a.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Elephant and left. There's all this meat right here.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Oh my god, Bob and Sally get over here. There's
a lot of elephant meat. We gotta get this as fair.
We gotta get this as fast as we can before
the other tigers come and take it away from us.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Is there something in wired, hardwired.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Into us that clicks on when we when we see
a deal, when we say, oh, we get it, we
gotta get this as much as we can, or we're
gonna lose.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
It's gonna be bad.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Yeah, that's great. Yeah, you're you're talking about an evolutionary
psychology approach which says, over time, we've effectively been trained
and wired to a certain way. And yeah, I mean
I think I think that there's that's for that when
we think about just how human motivation operates, uh, you know,
probably bigger picture or are there maybe more simple is
(10:09):
you know, a lot of this operates on the principle
of scarcity, right, So these are limited time deals with
incredible opportunities potentially limit quantities on top of it, because
there's a lot of if you don't get this now,
you'll never get this right. The fear of missing out
is really what's driving I.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Was gonna use that phrase. You know, I have to
admit I too. I can.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I can sit here and be all wise and say, well,
you know, people are unnecessarily freaking out, but I do
the same thing.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
I can't help absolutely.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
And you know, back in we.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Used to have this store called Filings here in Boston.
There used to be Filings basement and they usually have
these automatic markdowns, and and they used to have a
wedding dress I believe there was a wedding dress sale
once a year or something. I wouldn't believe what happened
during that. And also I myself one other, one other story,
(11:07):
and people in this area will love a Filine's basement story.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
There.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I was shopping for shoes in the shoe department, and
I'm size eleven and some things eleven and a half.
But there were some really good shoes, like really super
expensive shoes. It said five hundred bucks. They were marked
down to thirty nine ninety nine again thirty nine ninety five,
and just you know, because it was such a good deal,
I thought, I'm gonna cram my foot in these and
(11:34):
make them fit. But you know what, they fit for
some reason, because maybe it was a foreign sizing or something,
so they were in the wrong size and there were
probably a thousand, no two thousand bucks worth there. So
for I was frothy mouth crazy looking all over the
(11:57):
shoe department finding and I found.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
Four more pairs.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
So I'm I'm guilty of this. I completely am. I
am also guilty of buying stuff I don't need because
it's a deal, and that we should talk about all
the psychology of that, and also the evolution of Cyber
Monday and Black Friday and how it's changed after this
on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Bradley for Dan tonight, let's continue with Jared Watson. He's
a marketing assistant a marketing professor at NYU, and we're
talking about Black Friday and I really want to get
I want to make the most of it, and I'm
looking for advice and hopefully you'll be able to learn
get some advice as well. I would love it if
you'd call in at six point seven two five, four,
(12:48):
ten thirty and share your Black Friday story. Maybe your
Black Friday hopes and dreams, uh, Professor Watson, My hopes
and dreams are are this kind of I'm a musician
and I'm in a band, but the band doesn't have
a drummer. So I bought a very simple sample pad
so I can be It plays electronic drum samples. It
(13:09):
does the job well enough, but it's limited and I
can take it back and I can get a much
better one. But now that they're like between six hundred
and ninety nine dollars and a thousand bucks, so can
I utilize Black.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Friday to get a deal? Do you think?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Or is this a Cyber Monday thing? Why don't you
be my Black Friday coach?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Oh? Good question. Yeah, I mean I think there's definitely
the opportunity to find deals just about anything under the sun.
You know, in addition to Black Friday and Cyber Monday,
there's also small business Saturday, and so if you're a
purveyor of like the small independent music scene, all right,
(13:49):
you might be able to go to your local store
on the Saturday and find a deal. Otherwise, these Black
Friday deals, these Cyber Monday deals, like I said, they
they kind of stretched into weeks now instead of days,
and so certainly I think there's opportunity to find a deal.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
So that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Part of the reason that the original version of Black
Friday was so effective was the fear that you'd miss out.
But yeah, now that it's stretched out, that fear is gone,
and so it's a different animal. Can you talk about
why it still works even though the fear is gone the.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Fear of.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah, very very different animal. You know, some of that
fear is still there when it comes to scarcity, right,
So even if you're buying something from Amazon, they don't
have unlimited quantities of products, so there's certainly still the
opportunity to miss out on some of these deals. Some
of them have timed windows, so especially if you're on
(14:52):
a website like Amazon, you might see deals that last
for an hour or six hours or twenty four hours, right,
and they'll have countdown timers letting you know, or they'll
have progress bars showing that quantity that will be discounted,
letting you know that if you don't buy it before
that bar fills up, but before that time expires, it's
(15:14):
going to go back to a higher revenue, higher price point.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
That's smart marketing. Right.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Absolutely, let's talk.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
To Joline and Beverly about Black Friday and maybe it's
here about her experience.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Maybe she's got a question. Hi, Juline, how do you do?
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Bradley? Just want to know if you've stalked up on
some texture vegetable protein that we talked about putting a
crunch in your soggy oatmeal.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Oh no, I haven't.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Oh well yeah, maybe I can use.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Julian's referring to my aversion to mushy oatmeal. And so
thank you for that question, Juliane, I appreciate.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
What about stuff like that food?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Is it only electronics and big things or are they
Can you get deals on.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Things like every day food items? Oh?
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Absolutely, yeah, you'll see you know, one grocers will be
running promotions also straight from the manufacturer, you can find deals.
So if you're looking for that kind of interesting breakfast
replacement that's not soggy, there's a really cool new company
out called Dune Snacks Dune and they're an eco friendly,
(16:35):
sustainable meal brand, right, and so they're they're producing protein
bars currently. They recently sold out from their promotion, but
what they've decided to do is to say, hey, you
can sign up now on Black Friday for pre order
special and get thirty percent off once we have the
next batch in stock for shipping.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
So just stuff. So what it sells out, I don't.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Well, yeah, you're seeing this kind of idea happen, right,
Like with social media virality of products happening. People learn
about something, it blows up overnight, its out. Can't make
it fast enough.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
So again, even though some of the fear of missing
out is gone, there still is the get people in
the store factor. You're in the store, whether it be
the brick and mortar store or the online store. Once
you're in there and floating around and what they have,
you might say, ooh, I didn't I forgot I needed that.
(17:36):
Oh there's a toolkit. I kind of need a toolkit that. Yeah,
that's a big part of it.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah, absolutely, I think you know, one of the kind
of interesting things that's going to be the challenge for
the Black Friday holiday going forward. It's not going to
have as much of that incidental exposure. So going back
five years, ten years, fifteen years ago, you'd walk into
Walmart or best buyo Black Friday and as you walk
through that store, looking at your checklist of items, you'd
(18:05):
be exposed to all sorts of other purchases that you
just had to throw in the cart due to that
fear of missing out. Right today, if you're going on Amazon,
you're going to the search bar and punching in those
few items that you're looking for, you're not seeing as
much of those random opportunities that you might have had
in that brick and mortar.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
One thing that I noticed online is this say it
even looking for an electronic device. I find these electronic
device and I want to find out about the device.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
I want to see the specs.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
In order to get through the specs, I kind of
have to wander through the cyber aisle to get to
the specs.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
They'll go through two or three screens worth of other stuff.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Customers who like this, I also like that, And some
of the stuff is not even that related. It's like
customers who'd like this electronic drum sample pad.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
I also like this brush here and.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
That.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
I see what they're doing more clearly now that we're
having this conversation is they're kind of trying to create
the similar brick and mortar. Oh, I did I need that?
And I need that The big box store experience.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
I remember, I remember going.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I used to drive up to New Hampshire a lot
because when my parents were alive and i'd be going
by Portsmouth and they have Portsmouth New Hampshire big box stores.
I'd go to Costco one of them, and you know,
you go there for the deal, but you think I'm
going to spend thirty bucks and you walk out spending
two hundred bucks because everything's just such a crazy deal.
Same same principle, I guess. And a lot of that
(19:43):
stuff that you just I might need this around the house,
that kind of thing. Ooh I need that ratchet set,
I need that screwdriver set.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
I might need it, and there it is.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
So they are kind of making up for that in
the way that a format their website.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
I didn't mean to interrupt, Go ahead, Oh, no problem.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Yeah, I was just gonna say, you know, there's a
two ways to think about how people are engaging in
these shopping occasions, and so one is gonna be this
problem directed thing where you say, hey, I need that
drum kit, so let me go find the best deal
in the drum kits I can possibly find. And then
(20:24):
there's the other one that says like, oh wow, I
was just exposed to this. Could I need this? Should
I need this?
Speaker 4 (20:32):
Right?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
And so we see kind of a mixing of those
two things in every one of our shopping occasions. And
that's how we go to Costco and we say, hey,
I need thirty dollars worth of stuff, but when we walk,
we say, I just purchased two hundred dollars worth. But
all of it seems useful, right, Like it's like, oh,
I could use toilet paper, I could use hands, if
(20:54):
I could use some chicken breast, but those weren't things
that were on my list.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
With Jared.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
After this on WBZ, You're on Night Side with Dan
Ray on WBZ Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Thank you for that news out, We returned to our guests,
Jared Watson talking about Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and of
course small Business Saturday. I have we haven't really touched
on that enough. Ken you talk about small business Saturday.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Sure, so Black Friday. You know, as we were discussing earlier,
it really arose from the big box retailers and small
businesses were feeling left out. You know, they couldn't offer
a steep of discounts as their large counterparts, but they
still wanted to be able to provide deals to their neighbors,
(21:46):
and you know, they wanted to increase loyalty and patronage.
And so Small Business Saturday popped up, oh twenty ish
years ago actually with a big push from American Express.
Right as American Express was trying to get placed into
more doors with their with their higher fees, they got
(22:08):
behind Small Business Saturday with the hope that these independents
would also start to utilize their services. Small Business Saturday
is a great opportunity where you can go in and
find bespoke good at local retailers. So when you're thinking
about artisan made products, when you're thinking about things like
your local coffee shop or bakery, oftentimes they'll have special
(22:31):
incentives in place. You know, these aren't going to be
the earth shattering deals that you're seeing on Black Friday.
That they are a nice sort of token of appreciation
for your patronage.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Yeah, and it's kind of it's kind of nice to
give back.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
You probably feel good bringing your business to a small
business that you can absolutely you look at them and say, hello, Bob,
I love your store. I went and got three free
meatball subsidy not all for me, and in a local place,
and just I was so happy to be giving this
guy my money. He was very happy to have the business.
(23:10):
And I don't know what you is there a word
for that particular kind of transactional satisfaction that is quantify usable?
Speaker 4 (23:20):
And can you quantify that?
Speaker 5 (23:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (23:23):
I mean, you know, I guess, I guess it depends
exactly on what you're feeling. But the idea of altruism, right,
which is really about helping somebody with no expected return,
the idea of benevolence, right, so you're trying to spread goodwill.
Both of these things I think are like widely researched
in these commerce settings that we're talking about, trying to
(23:46):
understand when, where, and how they operate.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Is there any advantage in Black Friday or Cyber Monday
or vice versa.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
You know, historically, I'd say Black Friday was really good
for traditional mass merch and big ticket items like television, clothing, pots,
and tans, et cetera. Cyber Monday was reserved really for
the tech space. So if you're looking for computer chips,
(24:22):
if you were looking for cameras, if you were looking
for laptops, you would often find better deals on Cyber
Monday's forward to today, I'd see they're virtually indistinguishable, you know,
and you can think of Cyber Monday almost as like
the restock for Black Friday. Are there going to be
some different deals, sure on the margin, but in general,
(24:46):
you know, the earlier you see a great deal, the
sooner you should jump on it, because it's unlikely that
you're going to see it getting cheaper as this Black
Friday season goes on.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Interesting, so says, though initially the name of the day
came from the stuff you bought them, well, no Monday
was initially about buying a cyber stuff, and now it's
not so much about the stuff you buy, but it's
(25:20):
the method you use to buy it. You buy it
over the internet. It's not necessarily buying electronic stuff. You
can get anything basically the same thing. But you are
waiting for three days?
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Is there?
Speaker 2 (25:34):
It seems like you were saying there may be a
downside to waiting those three days. Maybe you should get
get it right out of the gate.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Yeah, I'd say literally, you know, as soon as you
see a price you're happy with, buy, then think about
potential return policies in place to hedge with any downside.
But ultimately, when you're thinking about the big picture to that,
and we're talking about this idea scarcity and pomo, what
(26:02):
were the really big benefits for retailers about Cyber Monday.
Was there all of these consumers who would feel guilt
and regret because they missed out on such a great
bargain on Black Friday, that when they saw the second
wave that might not have been such a good deal,
what was better than nothing? They would jump on those
(26:23):
secondary deals on Cyber Monday as well, So.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
They suffered from regret for missing out instead of fear
of missing out, they actually they missed out and they
were suffering pangs of regret thinking, oh, I'm such a fool.
But then they get a second chance on Cyber Monday.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Yeah, and they might pay, you know, ten percent more
than they would have on Black Friday. But that's better
than nothing.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Okay. I like this question. I'm curious. I'm hoping to
get an answer. Maybe there is none.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Why is the push to sell stuff at the end
of the year.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
I know at the end of the the end of
the year is when you get past being in the
red and into the black, But you could just as
well have a push in January.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
You could have.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
February freak out or I don't know, September sickness or
May madness or something. Why do they focus on trying
to get this big burst of sales at the end
of the year as opposed to getting a jump on
it at.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
The beginning of the year.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Sure, it's really, you know, a perfect storm of things
going on. So from the corporate side of the equation,
it's like you said, they've got quarter close, they've got
year end closed. They're trying to hit some financial targets,
usually quarter clothes because many of them in their year
in March. So they've got that going on. But from
(27:50):
the consumer perspective, right, it's the holiday season, it's the
end of our year, and we have like really strict
sort of psychological barriers around things like years, right, and
so we might be thinking, I've saved up all this money,
it's okay to deplete my account at the end of
(28:11):
the year and start a new On January first, we
might be thinking, Hey, I've put in all of this work.
It's my time to reward myself and others for that work.
So I'm going to be a spend thrift. I'm willing
to spend more, I'm willing to go above and beyond, right,
And so I think this kind of perfect combination of
things where retailers say, this is an opportunity for us
(28:35):
to exploit the felt needs and wants of consumers, and
consumers associating gift giving with the holiday season with the
year end push right, makes us willing and wanting to
engage with retailers this way.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
While you're speaking, and I was listening, but also I
was thinking, I wonder if part of the reason they
do that at the end of the year is bread
with things, things that come out with new model years
or new fashion seasons. They need to get rid of
the current crop of stuff to make room for new inventory.
Is that you think that might add into it?
Speaker 3 (29:16):
I mean, that definitely factors into some of the things
being promoted, But I want to say that's the primary driver, right,
because a lot of these things have such long lead times,
the production cycles for these products, and we're actually you know,
there's quite a bit of product that is produced exclusively
(29:36):
for this Black Friday shopping window. So you'll actually be
able to go on online forums you can read and
see how some products seem like they're the same, but
they have a special number added to their UPC special
label on their box that tells us it was produced
exclusively for Black Friday, oftentimes with inferior quality relative to
(30:01):
the mainstay product.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
We need to spend a little more time in like
another sixty seconds on this.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Can you repeat that?
Speaker 2 (30:07):
It's kind of like I heard outlet stores, some companies
produce a less expensive to produce the stock for outlet stores.
Are you saying that the same happens for Black Fridays.
Sometimes they may make a lower quality version for Black Friday.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Yeah, that's exactly it.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
How do you check that? How do you protect yourselfing?
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Yeah? So one of the easiest ways to do so
is to see if these are products that are being
carried year round. So oftentimes you might look at a
television and say like, oh, this seems like that television,
But then when you look at the specs, you'll say like, oh,
this is actually different from another model that they have
in store that's the same size, from the same brand
(30:53):
with similar features. Right, And so you want to look
and see, like, do I have knowledge of the purchases
three of this product online? Is this something that this
retailer is carrying on a regular basis. Sometimes boxes will
actually be labeled with things that they like chromo, right,
and just lets you know that this is what we
call on in and out where it's a periodic sale
(31:15):
for a week or a month.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Wow, And did you mention something about checking a stock
number or something to see if it matches the one
you think it is, or checking the number somewhere to yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So you have these things called stock
keeping units skews, and you can oftentimes look these skews
up online. You can see like, is this a product
that's being carried in all of the warehouses? Is this
the thing that was being sold last month? Kim? Do
we have sort of knowledge of some of this information
(31:50):
which you can often find by searching right, So you
can function that skew and you can ask like, is
this a regular unit? If you see, for instance, Best
Buy and Target carrying the same skew, it's likely that
that's the normal product. If you see one of those
retailers carrying one version but all the other retailers having
(32:13):
a different version, it's likely your retailer has a special
holiday version of it. And you might just want to
be cautious when considering purchasing those.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
Wow, that's good information.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
I do want to ask you after this break about
gift cards and certain things to make to check before
you buy, just to make sure you just to make
sure you get in the right thing, et cetera.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
After this on.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
WBZ, it's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
You know, if you have to go away from the
actual radio for a while, you can listen live online.
It's pretty easy. I think the easiest way to listen
live is simply Google or search for WBZ News Radio
listen live. That's what I do. That's you know you
want to get Maybe you want to break away from
(33:05):
family festivities and get a little alone time with WBZ
and there's no radio in the room, Boom, take the
laptop or whatever. Coming up at ten, we have a
really cool guest that I am first saw on YouTube
and she does she's an expert in words, word origins
and the origins of you know, wise old sayings like hangover,
(33:30):
et cetera. Where do those where do those phrases come from? Well,
she knows, she's the expert on that. And then at
eleven I do. I'm going to do something I rarely do,
and why not just refine open lines for folks who
just want to chat. Now we continue with Jared Watson
and talking about maximizing Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I'm
(33:52):
curious about gift cards. A lot of people give gift cards.
How does that factor in on these holidays?
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Sure, gift cards. Gift cards are a fascinating form of value,
right because they're there. They allow you to purchase a
lot of things, but they're restricted in their use, right,
And so from the consumer's perspective, they often might prefer
cash where they have more opportunity to buy more things.
(34:23):
But from the gift givers perspective, right, they don't want
to lose that attachment that you have to whatever you purchase.
Like if you give someone cash and it goes in
their wallet, it gets mixed with their other cash, and
now that gift giver doesn't know what they purchased for.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
You some certain stigma attached to cash. Oh, you just
saw an episode of Seinfeld that kind of I think
addressed this, And.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Would you agree there's a stigma, Oh you gave cash?
How tacky?
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Yeah, there's an absolutely stigma.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
You know.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
I think one of the reasons it feels tacky or
whatever is that it can feel thoughtless, right, feel like, oh,
you didn't think about this person's preferences. But in reality, right,
cash is kind of the ultimate thoughtful gift because it
allows consumers to maximize their preferences at any point in time.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
But at least with a gift card, you're you know,
say the person's into fishing. If you give them a
gift card to ll Bean, at least you're acknowledging that
you kind of get them a little.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Bit absolutely, And I would say, you know, the one
upside for gift cards is that that person might be
a tightwad. They might they might be into fishing, and
they might not want to spend money at lban because
it would make them feel bad. Right, But if they
have that gift card to Lbean, they have to spend
it there.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
That's the best reason. That's a good one.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Yeah, if you give them cash and they're a reasonable
sensible type of folk, they I should probably pay the
phone bill with this money, but you can with the
gift card.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
You gotta get something fun that's cool. Unless you get
a gift card to the phone company. That wouldn't be
so fun.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Now, there are restrictions you mentioned, and it's important to
understand them in order to not lose out on the
value of your gift card.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Yeah, so, I think you know. One of the challenges
with gift cards is you can misplace it, right, and
if you don't have that card, it's going to be
hard to retain the value they can expire, right, And
so if you don't spend it in an allotted period,
you also may lose out on that value. So that's
a big challenge. One of the things I always encourage
(36:47):
people when they receive gift cards or give gift cards
is to nudge spending immediately, right, So as we look
towards this holiday season, it might be something like for
Christmas Eve or for Chris. Unless you give someone a
gift card and you say, hey, how about we go
out shopping tomorrow. Let's follow that up and think about
(37:07):
how we spend that, or even nudging them at that point,
how are you going to spend that? And get someone
thinking about spending it. That elaboration and that thought that
should also help manage them towards not forgetting about it
and spending it before it becomes worthless.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
You know what, Jared, that is a great idea because
it's a more impactful treat if you have to if
you enjoy it right after. Because the immediacy of that
is great, and that's part of the chime of gift
is it's immediate. But what if in generally people wait
with a gift card and lose the immediacy. But encouraging
(37:43):
them to go, hey, let's go right now and go
to that restaurant and blow this two hundred bucks on
a fantastic meal right now or tomorrow, that's a great idea, Jared.
I want to Jared Watson, I should say, a professor
at NYU Marketing in the marketing department. I really appreciate
(38:03):
your time. It was an excellent session and I got
some real good takeaways from it. Thanks you, take care
and have a happy holiday to you.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Okay, God bless Okay.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Joel, Connecticut, Well, you know what, Joel, why don't you
either see what you think about our next guest and
call back on that one or join me at the
eleven o'clock hour when it's open lines if you're going
to be up or anything.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
All right, Joel, Joel called in. There's really not.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Time to do Joel Justice, so I'm encouraging him to
call back later tonight.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Perhaps I'm really looking forward to this next guest as well.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Jesseafaria is a YouTube star that deals with words. Words
Unraveled is the YouTube show she does with a man
named Rob Words, and I'm fascinated by it. I subscribe,
and then it occurred to me, Wow, I bet you
(39:09):
some folks that love words and would love to dig
into the meanings of various idioms or these cool sayings
and also find out the origin of certain sports words,
like do you know the where the words sports came from?
Speaker 4 (39:26):
Probably not, but if you hang with me very soon,
you will.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
So I'm looking forward to sharing the next couple of
hours with you here on night Side on WBZ News
Radio ten thirty
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Thank you, Ell. I'm Bradley Jay for Dan tonight. It
is wonderful to be with you all on Night Side.
I do want to thank Robert Ciciliano for coming into
the studio and giving us a blistering hour of how
to protect ourselves from bad people on the internet. If
(00:27):
you do the stuff that was recommended, you're going to
be much more protected. And if you forgot any of it,
may I recommend that you find the podcast of that
hour by simply going to Nightside on demand and listening again,
believe it or not, and writing down if you didn't
the stuff to do, because it could make all the
(00:49):
difference in your life. It really could, and you might
want to share it with someone. For example, the person
who called and said that his friend was sending money
somewhere and thought he had made two hundred and forty
thousand dollars should probably share that podcast with his friend.
We're only hours away from Black Friday, and so we
(01:14):
want you to get the most out of it. So
we have an expert on Black Friday here with us,
Jared Watson, Assistant Professor at NYU a marketing professor. We're
going to talk about getting the most from Black Friday
and Cyber Monday. Thank you, sir for being.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
With us, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Absolutely now listen for you listening all out there. I
have some questions that may prompt you to call in
at six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty. Have
you ever participated in the in the wild Black Friday
back in the day, What was that like?
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Share that was like?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
And how is it different now when you go Jared,
I'm asking this to all folks. I'll get you specifically
in a moment. Where do you go for Black Friday?
Do you have a favorite places that you feel is
got the best deals or the best deals for you?
Tell us about the best Black Friday deal you ever got?
Did you really get a good one? And do you
(02:15):
use Cyber Monday instead of Black Friday for convenience? And
what kind of We want to find out what things
are perhaps better bought on Cyber Monday than on Black Friday?
And do you stalk up on anything? Are you a horder? No,
it's got a negative connotation. I should say, are you
a stalker?
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Upper? I will admit to.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Certain stocking up tendencies, and I don't want to overshare,
but I will admit to you as we speak, and
I have ten cases of sardines. You may you may say, what, Well,
you know that's my survival kid.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
I got my go bag and my ten cases of sardines.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Actually I like sardines, and I feared that the price
was going to go up. I found a brand I
liked and another brand had gone out of business, so
I just bought a bunch. And in another stocking up story,
one time, do you remember Sims folks up on the
North Shore. Well, one time I saw that they had
(03:18):
Dulte and Gamana polo shirts, usually about one hundred bucks
or more, even back in the nineties. They were thirty nine,
ninety nine and multiple colors, and I bought wait for it,
not five, not ten, not fifteen, but twenty one. And
(03:38):
you know what, I never regretted it because each one
of them lasted about six months before I started a
look a little old, I give it away.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
So I had Dulte and.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Gamana polo shirts four ten years as a result, So that.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Was a big win.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Other times, when I stock up, it's usually a mistake,
even if the product is still good.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
I just get sick of it, not just give them away.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
So anyway, do you have stories that are like that
about Black Friday? Do you buy stuff maybe you didn't need.
We want to hear your Black Friday story. So now
I turn to you, Shared Watson, and try to get
a little bit first, a little bit of history of
Black Friday.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
I'm sure you've.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Done more research than I, being a professor at all,
but I guess first use of it came from when
a couple of goals speculators back in the late eighteen
hundreds saved that tried a corner the market on gold,
but something bad happened and everything fell apart.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
And then.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
In the fifties down in Philly, down in Philly, a
lot of suburban shoppers and tourists used to flood that
city in advance of the Army Navy football game. Police
had to work over time, and shoplifters took advantage of it.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
It was just a.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Mess down in Philly, and the police call that Black Friday.
And then in the eighties it turned from the turned
red in the red in the black that became Black Friday.
And that's the one we know now, right, John.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
That's it. Yeah, The way we think about Black Friday
today is that it's historically the day where retailers went
from being in debt or in the red to being
in the profit in the black right. And so the
way retailer retailers operated is effectively operating eleven months in
debt for one large holiday push where they made up
(05:34):
the profit for the year. And that's kind of how
we think about it to this day, even though Black
Friday has kind of expanded from a singular day event
to now a multi week Sure.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
So do you remember who was the first to do this?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Because I don't, Oh, good question, I don't off the
top of my head. If I were to guess, no,
it would be one of our main stay departments. I
wouldn't be surprised to know that this was a J. C.
Penny's event or a Bloomingdale's event. But fafter the matter,
(06:12):
given the evolving retail industry, quite a good chance at
whichever retailer started this might not be around anymore today.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Right, so.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
You know, maybe fifteen twenty years past before they figured
out cyber Monday and talk about that transition, or I
should say that addition.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, absolutely, so The whole idea behind Black Friday in
the retail sense is let's tempt people with incredible deals,
get them in store in this fervor, and in this excitement,
they'll go around and they'll buy other things that have
higher profit margins. For the brand challenge with.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I was wondering why I worked for them, because I
was just wondering, do people somehow buy more stuff? Because
do they spend more money? I should say somehow and
talk about that. Why why would you? I don't get it?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Yeah, So starting there, you know, I mean, I think
it's it's the idea of being in that deal mindset, right,
So you're hit over the head with the advertisements, You're
seeing incredible signage. When you're in store, there's an actual feeling, right,
you can actually feel the excitement in the air where
everyone is running and grabbing and saying buy first, think later,
(07:33):
And as a result of that, there's really this kind
of pandemonium in store. Historically, there was so the easiest
way to think about it was there were these doorbusters
where you would have a too good to be true
deal on a television Guess what, there's only one or
two of those in store, and if you're the third
or the tenth or one hundredth person in line for
(07:53):
that product. You don't have that one available anymore. But hey,
here's another pretty good option. We higher price points that retailer.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Were they honest about that? They didn't say, hey, we've
got three TV?
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Did they say we've got three TV?
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yeah? So initially they didn't. And then to your point, right,
the Better Business Bureau stepped in FTC said you can't
communicate these types of deals without being clear about the
opportunities available to consumers. And so now you'll see, you know,
over the last fifteen years or so, you can see
in the flyers guaranteed one in store, guaranteed five in store,
(08:33):
et cetera, to give people some sort of idea about
the likelihood of success if they were shopping for that deal. Yeah,
it's certainly something the government came in and helped regulate
because consumers were being led astray by some of these advertisements.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
So can you talk about the sociological and psychological primitive
thing that we have inside that makes us go nuts
when this deal and makes us by stuff we don't
even need.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Does it go way back to two hundred and fifty
thousand years ago, the first you know, you'd see, say,
I say, the tooth tiger had taken down a.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Elephant and left. There's all this meat right here.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Oh my god, Bob and Sally get over here. There's
a lot of elephant meat. We gotta get this as fair.
We gotta get this as fast as we can before
the other tigers come and take it away from us.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Is there something in wired, hardwired.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Into us that clicks on when we when we see
a deal, when we say, oh, we get it, we
gotta get this as much as we can, or we're
gonna lose.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
It's gonna be bad.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Yeah, that's great. Yeah, you're you're talking about an evolutionary
psychology approach which says, over time, we've effectively been trained
and wired to a certain way. And yeah, I mean
I think I think that there's that's for that when
we think about just how human motivation operates, uh, you know,
probably bigger picture or are there maybe more simple is
(10:09):
you know, a lot of this operates on the principle
of scarcity, right, So these are limited time deals with
incredible opportunities potentially limit quantities on top of it, because
there's a lot of if you don't get this now,
you'll never get this right. The fear of missing out
is really what's driving I.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Was gonna use that phrase. You know, I have to
admit I too. I can.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I can sit here and be all wise and say, well,
you know, people are unnecessarily freaking out, but I do
the same thing.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
I can't help absolutely.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
And you know, back in we.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Used to have this store called Filings here in Boston.
There used to be Filings basement and they usually have
these automatic markdowns, and and they used to have a
wedding dress I believe there was a wedding dress sale
once a year or something. I wouldn't believe what happened
during that. And also I myself one other, one other story,
(11:07):
and people in this area will love a Filine's basement story.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
There.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I was shopping for shoes in the shoe department, and
I'm size eleven and some things eleven and a half.
But there were some really good shoes, like really super
expensive shoes. It said five hundred bucks. They were marked
down to thirty nine ninety nine again thirty nine ninety five,
and just you know, because it was such a good deal,
I thought, I'm gonna cram my foot in these and
(11:34):
make them fit. But you know what, they fit for
some reason, because maybe it was a foreign sizing or something,
so they were in the wrong size and there were
probably a thousand, no two thousand bucks worth there. So
for I was frothy mouth crazy looking all over the
(11:57):
shoe department finding and I found.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
Four more pairs.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
So I'm I'm guilty of this. I completely am. I
am also guilty of buying stuff I don't need because
it's a deal, and that we should talk about all
the psychology of that, and also the evolution of Cyber
Monday and Black Friday and how it's changed after this
on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Bradley for Dan tonight, let's continue with Jared Watson. He's
a marketing assistant a marketing professor at NYU, and we're
talking about Black Friday and I really want to get
I want to make the most of it, and I'm
looking for advice and hopefully you'll be able to learn
get some advice as well. I would love it if
you'd call in at six point seven two five, four,
(12:48):
ten thirty and share your Black Friday story. Maybe your
Black Friday hopes and dreams, uh, Professor Watson, My hopes
and dreams are are this kind of I'm a musician
and I'm in a band, but the band doesn't have
a drummer. So I bought a very simple sample pad
so I can be It plays electronic drum samples. It
(13:09):
does the job well enough, but it's limited and I
can take it back and I can get a much
better one. But now that they're like between six hundred
and ninety nine dollars and a thousand bucks, so can
I utilize Black.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Friday to get a deal? Do you think?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Or is this a Cyber Monday thing? Why don't you
be my Black Friday coach?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Oh? Good question. Yeah, I mean I think there's definitely
the opportunity to find deals just about anything under the sun.
You know, in addition to Black Friday and Cyber Monday,
there's also small business Saturday, and so if you're a
purveyor of like the small independent music scene, all right,
(13:49):
you might be able to go to your local store
on the Saturday and find a deal. Otherwise, these Black
Friday deals, these Cyber Monday deals, like I said, they
they kind of stretched into weeks now instead of days,
and so certainly I think there's opportunity to find a deal.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
So that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Part of the reason that the original version of Black
Friday was so effective was the fear that you'd miss out.
But yeah, now that it's stretched out, that fear is gone,
and so it's a different animal. Can you talk about
why it still works even though the fear is gone the.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Fear of.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah, very very different animal. You know, some of that
fear is still there when it comes to scarcity, right,
So even if you're buying something from Amazon, they don't
have unlimited quantities of products, so there's certainly still the
opportunity to miss out on some of these deals. Some
of them have timed windows, so especially if you're on
(14:52):
a website like Amazon, you might see deals that last
for an hour or six hours or twenty four hours, right,
and they'll have countdown timers letting you know, or they'll
have progress bars showing that quantity that will be discounted,
letting you know that if you don't buy it before
that bar fills up, but before that time expires, it's
(15:14):
going to go back to a higher revenue, higher price point.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
That's smart marketing. Right.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Absolutely, let's talk.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
To Joline and Beverly about Black Friday and maybe it's
here about her experience.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Maybe she's got a question. Hi, Juline, how do you do?
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Bradley? Just want to know if you've stalked up on
some texture vegetable protein that we talked about putting a
crunch in your soggy oatmeal.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Oh no, I haven't.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Oh well yeah, maybe I can use.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Julian's referring to my aversion to mushy oatmeal. And so
thank you for that question, Juliane, I appreciate.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
What about stuff like that food?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Is it only electronics and big things or are they
Can you get deals on.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Things like every day food items? Oh?
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Absolutely, yeah, you'll see you know, one grocers will be
running promotions also straight from the manufacturer, you can find deals.
So if you're looking for that kind of interesting breakfast
replacement that's not soggy, there's a really cool new company
out called Dune Snacks Dune and they're an eco friendly,
(16:35):
sustainable meal brand, right, and so they're they're producing protein
bars currently. They recently sold out from their promotion, but
what they've decided to do is to say, hey, you
can sign up now on Black Friday for pre order
special and get thirty percent off once we have the
next batch in stock for shipping.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
So just stuff. So what it sells out, I don't.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Well, yeah, you're seeing this kind of idea happen, right,
Like with social media virality of products happening. People learn
about something, it blows up overnight, its out. Can't make
it fast enough.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
So again, even though some of the fear of missing
out is gone, there still is the get people in
the store factor. You're in the store, whether it be
the brick and mortar store or the online store. Once
you're in there and floating around and what they have,
you might say, ooh, I didn't I forgot I needed that.
(17:36):
Oh there's a toolkit. I kind of need a toolkit that. Yeah,
that's a big part of it.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah, absolutely, I think you know, one of the kind
of interesting things that's going to be the challenge for
the Black Friday holiday going forward. It's not going to
have as much of that incidental exposure. So going back
five years, ten years, fifteen years ago, you'd walk into
Walmart or best buyo Black Friday and as you walk
through that store, looking at your checklist of items, you'd
(18:05):
be exposed to all sorts of other purchases that you
just had to throw in the cart due to that
fear of missing out. Right today, if you're going on Amazon,
you're going to the search bar and punching in those
few items that you're looking for, you're not seeing as
much of those random opportunities that you might have had
in that brick and mortar.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
One thing that I noticed online is this say it
even looking for an electronic device. I find these electronic
device and I want to find out about the device.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
I want to see the specs.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
In order to get through the specs, I kind of
have to wander through the cyber aisle to get to
the specs.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
They'll go through two or three screens worth of other stuff.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Customers who like this, I also like that, And some
of the stuff is not even that related. It's like
customers who'd like this electronic drum sample pad.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
I also like this brush here and.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
That.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
I see what they're doing more clearly now that we're
having this conversation is they're kind of trying to create
the similar brick and mortar. Oh, I did I need that?
And I need that The big box store experience.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
I remember, I remember going.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I used to drive up to New Hampshire a lot
because when my parents were alive and i'd be going
by Portsmouth and they have Portsmouth New Hampshire big box stores.
I'd go to Costco one of them, and you know,
you go there for the deal, but you think I'm
going to spend thirty bucks and you walk out spending
two hundred bucks because everything's just such a crazy deal.
Same same principle, I guess. And a lot of that
(19:43):
stuff that you just I might need this around the house,
that kind of thing. Ooh I need that ratchet set,
I need that screwdriver set.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
I might need it, and there it is.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
So they are kind of making up for that in
the way that a format their website.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
I didn't mean to interrupt, Go ahead, Oh, no problem.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Yeah, I was just gonna say, you know, there's a
two ways to think about how people are engaging in
these shopping occasions, and so one is gonna be this
problem directed thing where you say, hey, I need that
drum kit, so let me go find the best deal
in the drum kits I can possibly find. And then
(20:24):
there's the other one that says like, oh wow, I
was just exposed to this. Could I need this? Should
I need this?
Speaker 4 (20:32):
Right?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
And so we see kind of a mixing of those
two things in every one of our shopping occasions. And
that's how we go to Costco and we say, hey,
I need thirty dollars worth of stuff, but when we walk,
we say, I just purchased two hundred dollars worth. But
all of it seems useful, right, Like it's like, oh,
I could use toilet paper, I could use hands, if
(20:54):
I could use some chicken breast, but those weren't things
that were on my list.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
With Jared.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
After this on WBZ, You're on Night Side with Dan
Ray on WBZ Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Thank you for that news out, We returned to our guests,
Jared Watson talking about Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and of
course small Business Saturday. I have we haven't really touched
on that enough. Ken you talk about small business Saturday.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Sure, so Black Friday. You know, as we were discussing earlier,
it really arose from the big box retailers and small
businesses were feeling left out. You know, they couldn't offer
a steep of discounts as their large counterparts, but they
still wanted to be able to provide deals to their neighbors,
(21:46):
and you know, they wanted to increase loyalty and patronage.
And so Small Business Saturday popped up, oh twenty ish
years ago actually with a big push from American Express.
Right as American Express was trying to get placed into
more doors with their with their higher fees, they got
(22:08):
behind Small Business Saturday with the hope that these independents
would also start to utilize their services. Small Business Saturday
is a great opportunity where you can go in and
find bespoke good at local retailers. So when you're thinking
about artisan made products, when you're thinking about things like
your local coffee shop or bakery, oftentimes they'll have special
(22:31):
incentives in place. You know, these aren't going to be
the earth shattering deals that you're seeing on Black Friday.
That they are a nice sort of token of appreciation
for your patronage.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Yeah, and it's kind of it's kind of nice to
give back.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
You probably feel good bringing your business to a small
business that you can absolutely you look at them and say, hello, Bob,
I love your store. I went and got three free
meatball subsidy not all for me, and in a local place,
and just I was so happy to be giving this
guy my money. He was very happy to have the business.
(23:10):
And I don't know what you is there a word
for that particular kind of transactional satisfaction that is quantify usable?
Speaker 4 (23:20):
And can you quantify that?
Speaker 5 (23:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (23:23):
I mean, you know, I guess, I guess it depends
exactly on what you're feeling. But the idea of altruism, right,
which is really about helping somebody with no expected return,
the idea of benevolence, right, so you're trying to spread goodwill.
Both of these things I think are like widely researched
in these commerce settings that we're talking about, trying to
(23:46):
understand when, where, and how they operate.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Is there any advantage in Black Friday or Cyber Monday
or vice versa.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
You know, historically, I'd say Black Friday was really good
for traditional mass merch and big ticket items like television, clothing, pots,
and tans, et cetera. Cyber Monday was reserved really for
the tech space. So if you're looking for computer chips,
(24:22):
if you were looking for cameras, if you were looking
for laptops, you would often find better deals on Cyber
Monday's forward to today, I'd see they're virtually indistinguishable, you know,
and you can think of Cyber Monday almost as like
the restock for Black Friday. Are there going to be
some different deals, sure on the margin, but in general,
(24:46):
you know, the earlier you see a great deal, the
sooner you should jump on it, because it's unlikely that
you're going to see it getting cheaper as this Black
Friday season goes on.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Interesting, so says, though initially the name of the day
came from the stuff you bought them, well, no Monday
was initially about buying a cyber stuff, and now it's
not so much about the stuff you buy, but it's
(25:20):
the method you use to buy it. You buy it
over the internet. It's not necessarily buying electronic stuff. You
can get anything basically the same thing. But you are
waiting for three days?
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Is there?
Speaker 2 (25:34):
It seems like you were saying there may be a
downside to waiting those three days. Maybe you should get
get it right out of the gate.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Yeah, I'd say literally, you know, as soon as you
see a price you're happy with, buy, then think about
potential return policies in place to hedge with any downside.
But ultimately, when you're thinking about the big picture to that,
and we're talking about this idea scarcity and pomo, what
(26:02):
were the really big benefits for retailers about Cyber Monday.
Was there all of these consumers who would feel guilt
and regret because they missed out on such a great
bargain on Black Friday, that when they saw the second
wave that might not have been such a good deal,
what was better than nothing? They would jump on those
(26:23):
secondary deals on Cyber Monday as well, So.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
They suffered from regret for missing out instead of fear
of missing out, they actually they missed out and they
were suffering pangs of regret thinking, oh, I'm such a fool.
But then they get a second chance on Cyber Monday.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Yeah, and they might pay, you know, ten percent more
than they would have on Black Friday. But that's better
than nothing.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Okay. I like this question. I'm curious. I'm hoping to
get an answer. Maybe there is none.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Why is the push to sell stuff at the end
of the year.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
I know at the end of the the end of
the year is when you get past being in the
red and into the black, But you could just as
well have a push in January.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
You could have.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
February freak out or I don't know, September sickness or
May madness or something. Why do they focus on trying
to get this big burst of sales at the end
of the year as opposed to getting a jump on
it at.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
The beginning of the year.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Sure, it's really, you know, a perfect storm of things
going on. So from the corporate side of the equation,
it's like you said, they've got quarter close, they've got
year end closed. They're trying to hit some financial targets,
usually quarter clothes because many of them in their year
in March. So they've got that going on. But from
(27:50):
the consumer perspective, right, it's the holiday season, it's the
end of our year, and we have like really strict
sort of psychological barriers around things like years, right, and
so we might be thinking, I've saved up all this money,
it's okay to deplete my account at the end of
(28:11):
the year and start a new On January first, we
might be thinking, Hey, I've put in all of this work.
It's my time to reward myself and others for that work.
So I'm going to be a spend thrift. I'm willing
to spend more, I'm willing to go above and beyond, right,
And so I think this kind of perfect combination of
things where retailers say, this is an opportunity for us
(28:35):
to exploit the felt needs and wants of consumers, and
consumers associating gift giving with the holiday season with the
year end push right, makes us willing and wanting to
engage with retailers this way.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
While you're speaking, and I was listening, but also I
was thinking, I wonder if part of the reason they
do that at the end of the year is bread
with things, things that come out with new model years
or new fashion seasons. They need to get rid of
the current crop of stuff to make room for new inventory.
Is that you think that might add into it?
Speaker 3 (29:16):
I mean, that definitely factors into some of the things
being promoted, But I want to say that's the primary driver, right,
because a lot of these things have such long lead times,
the production cycles for these products, and we're actually you know,
there's quite a bit of product that is produced exclusively
(29:36):
for this Black Friday shopping window. So you'll actually be
able to go on online forums you can read and
see how some products seem like they're the same, but
they have a special number added to their UPC special
label on their box that tells us it was produced
exclusively for Black Friday, oftentimes with inferior quality relative to
(30:01):
the mainstay product.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
We need to spend a little more time in like
another sixty seconds on this.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Can you repeat that?
Speaker 2 (30:07):
It's kind of like I heard outlet stores, some companies
produce a less expensive to produce the stock for outlet stores.
Are you saying that the same happens for Black Fridays.
Sometimes they may make a lower quality version for Black Friday.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Yeah, that's exactly it.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
How do you check that? How do you protect yourselfing?
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Yeah? So one of the easiest ways to do so
is to see if these are products that are being
carried year round. So oftentimes you might look at a
television and say like, oh, this seems like that television,
But then when you look at the specs, you'll say like, oh,
this is actually different from another model that they have
in store that's the same size, from the same brand
(30:53):
with similar features. Right, And so you want to look
and see, like, do I have knowledge of the purchases
three of this product online? Is this something that this
retailer is carrying on a regular basis. Sometimes boxes will
actually be labeled with things that they like chromo, right,
and just lets you know that this is what we
call on in and out where it's a periodic sale
(31:15):
for a week or a month.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Wow, And did you mention something about checking a stock
number or something to see if it matches the one
you think it is, or checking the number somewhere to yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So you have these things called stock
keeping units skews, and you can oftentimes look these skews
up online. You can see like, is this a product
that's being carried in all of the warehouses? Is this
the thing that was being sold last month? Kim? Do
we have sort of knowledge of some of this information
(31:50):
which you can often find by searching right, So you
can function that skew and you can ask like, is
this a regular unit? If you see, for instance, Best
Buy and Target carrying the same skew, it's likely that
that's the normal product. If you see one of those
retailers carrying one version but all the other retailers having
(32:13):
a different version, it's likely your retailer has a special
holiday version of it. And you might just want to
be cautious when considering purchasing those.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
Wow, that's good information.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
I do want to ask you after this break about
gift cards and certain things to make to check before
you buy, just to make sure you just to make
sure you get in the right thing, et cetera.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
After this on.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
WBZ, it's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
You know, if you have to go away from the
actual radio for a while, you can listen live online.
It's pretty easy. I think the easiest way to listen
live is simply Google or search for WBZ News Radio
listen live. That's what I do. That's you know you
want to get Maybe you want to break away from
(33:05):
family festivities and get a little alone time with WBZ
and there's no radio in the room, Boom, take the
laptop or whatever. Coming up at ten, we have a
really cool guest that I am first saw on YouTube
and she does she's an expert in words, word origins
and the origins of you know, wise old sayings like hangover,
(33:30):
et cetera. Where do those where do those phrases come from? Well,
she knows, she's the expert on that. And then at
eleven I do. I'm going to do something I rarely do,
and why not just refine open lines for folks who
just want to chat. Now we continue with Jared Watson
and talking about maximizing Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I'm
(33:52):
curious about gift cards. A lot of people give gift cards.
How does that factor in on these holidays?
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Sure, gift cards. Gift cards are a fascinating form of value,
right because they're there. They allow you to purchase a
lot of things, but they're restricted in their use, right,
And so from the consumer's perspective, they often might prefer
cash where they have more opportunity to buy more things.
(34:23):
But from the gift givers perspective, right, they don't want
to lose that attachment that you have to whatever you purchase.
Like if you give someone cash and it goes in
their wallet, it gets mixed with their other cash, and
now that gift giver doesn't know what they purchased for.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
You some certain stigma attached to cash. Oh, you just
saw an episode of Seinfeld that kind of I think
addressed this, And.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Would you agree there's a stigma, Oh you gave cash?
How tacky?
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Yeah, there's an absolutely stigma.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
You know.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
I think one of the reasons it feels tacky or
whatever is that it can feel thoughtless, right, feel like, oh,
you didn't think about this person's preferences. But in reality, right,
cash is kind of the ultimate thoughtful gift because it
allows consumers to maximize their preferences at any point in time.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
But at least with a gift card, you're you know,
say the person's into fishing. If you give them a
gift card to ll Bean, at least you're acknowledging that
you kind of get them a little.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Bit absolutely, And I would say, you know, the one
upside for gift cards is that that person might be
a tightwad. They might they might be into fishing, and
they might not want to spend money at lban because
it would make them feel bad. Right, But if they
have that gift card to Lbean, they have to spend
it there.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
That's the best reason. That's a good one.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Yeah, if you give them cash and they're a reasonable
sensible type of folk, they I should probably pay the
phone bill with this money, but you can with the
gift card.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
You gotta get something fun that's cool. Unless you get
a gift card to the phone company. That wouldn't be
so fun.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Now, there are restrictions you mentioned, and it's important to
understand them in order to not lose out on the
value of your gift card.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Yeah, so, I think you know. One of the challenges
with gift cards is you can misplace it, right, and
if you don't have that card, it's going to be
hard to retain the value they can expire, right, And
so if you don't spend it in an allotted period,
you also may lose out on that value. So that's
a big challenge. One of the things I always encourage
(36:47):
people when they receive gift cards or give gift cards
is to nudge spending immediately, right, So as we look
towards this holiday season, it might be something like for
Christmas Eve or for Chris. Unless you give someone a
gift card and you say, hey, how about we go
out shopping tomorrow. Let's follow that up and think about
(37:07):
how we spend that, or even nudging them at that point,
how are you going to spend that? And get someone
thinking about spending it. That elaboration and that thought that
should also help manage them towards not forgetting about it
and spending it before it becomes worthless.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
You know what, Jared, that is a great idea because
it's a more impactful treat if you have to if
you enjoy it right after. Because the immediacy of that
is great, and that's part of the chime of gift
is it's immediate. But what if in generally people wait
with a gift card and lose the immediacy. But encouraging
(37:43):
them to go, hey, let's go right now and go
to that restaurant and blow this two hundred bucks on
a fantastic meal right now or tomorrow, that's a great idea, Jared.
I want to Jared Watson, I should say, a professor
at NYU Marketing in the marketing department. I really appreciate
(38:03):
your time. It was an excellent session and I got
some real good takeaways from it. Thanks you, take care
and have a happy holiday to you.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Okay, God bless Okay.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Joel, Connecticut, Well, you know what, Joel, why don't you
either see what you think about our next guest and
call back on that one or join me at the
eleven o'clock hour when it's open lines if you're going
to be up or anything.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
All right, Joel, Joel called in. There's really not.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Time to do Joel Justice, so I'm encouraging him to
call back later tonight.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Perhaps I'm really looking forward to this next guest as well.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Jesseafaria is a YouTube star that deals with words. Words
Unraveled is the YouTube show she does with a man
named Rob Words, and I'm fascinated by it. I subscribe,
and then it occurred to me, Wow, I bet you
(39:09):
some folks that love words and would love to dig
into the meanings of various idioms or these cool sayings
and also find out the origin of certain sports words,
like do you know the where the words sports came from?
Speaker 4 (39:26):
Probably not, but if you hang with me very soon,
you will.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
So I'm looking forward to sharing the next couple of
hours with you here on night Side on WBZ News
Radio ten thirty
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