The first time I ate pizza for breakfast, I thought I broke the law.
Eleven-year-old me was shocked, amazed, and could not fathom the idea of eating “non-breakfast” food in the morning. But there I was, on Black Friday, chowing down on a slice of cheese pizza the size of my head — and joining in on one of America’s weird and wonderful traditions.
Though not an official holiday, Black Friday is widely celebrated across the U.S. Don’t spend your Black Friday online. Instead, make a holiday out of it for yourself and go shopping in person.
Nine years ago, I went to bed on Thanksgiving night excited to awake in just a few hours for my mom and grandma’s Christmas shopping adventures.
We started the day at 3 a.m., bundled up for the snowy weather, and hopped in the Suburban. It was just the three of us driving in the dark to the Tanger Outlets in Sunbury, Ohio, a 45-minute drive from our house.
Even at 4 a.m., the mall was already packed with hundreds of people. But my mom and grandma had the whole day planned, and we were ready to begin our adventure.
We started in Pottery Barn, and while they looked at clothes and bedding, I climbed on the bunk beds and couches, picking my favorites and deeming certain couches the most comfortable. We taste-tested all the free pretzels and chocolate samples scattered throughout the rows of stores. While they tried on clothes and shopped for the family, I smelled Bath and Body Works candles, using an abundance of lotions, soaps, and sanitizers, and dug through the treasure chest of dollar section bins in Old Navy and Gap.
As the sun began to rise, my grandma was ready for breakfast. She marched to Sbarro’s and ordered a pizza for us.
“You’re allowed to eat pizza for breakfast?!” I asked in awe.
Moments like this made our Black Friday extravaganza exciting and memorable, and we continued our Black Friday traditions for years to come.
After COVID-19, stores were forced to limit the number of Black Friday shoppers allowed indoors. Malls were no longer flooded with people, and instead, most people had to wait in line to enter a store before waiting in another line to purchase something.
Rather than wait in line, many chose to shop online last year and in 2020. Cyber Monday had a record-breaking 100 million consumers shop online in 2021, 8% up from 2019, while in-person shopping went down a whopping 37%, according to blackfriday.com.
This year, 55% of Black Friday shoppers plan to shop online instead of in-person. But no computer screen can make up for the in-person shopping experience. You can’t try on clothes, you can’t test out couches, and you can’t try food samples.
If you’re debating shopping online this year, don’t. Instead, go experience the thrill of Black Friday. This holiday doesn’t need to become a wasteful adventure with just over-shoppers and extreme couponers. Spend the day with your family and friends at the mall chowing down on Annie’s Pretzels and attempting to find the most bizarre pair of shoes.
And if you love shopping, don’t settle for hours of internet-surfing. My best friend and I have fashion shows in the Target dressing room every year, digging around the racks for the perfect outfit and trying on dozens of items for fun.
Plus, if you wake up in the middle of the night like my family does, you can always enjoy a hot slice of pizza for breakfast.
