I was intending my November blog post to be about all the different variations of virtual escape games, but having just gone through Black Friday, that, and other topics will just have to wait.  

CodeCandyBlue.com officially opened for business on Valentine’s Day, 2021, so this was my first Black Friday as both a consumer and seller, and I have thoughts.

First, why is it called Black Friday?  I thought this was common knowledge, but several Black Friday ads I received in my mailbox exclaimed “We don’t know why it’s called Black Friday; we just know we’ve got DEALS, DEALS, DEALS for you!” (or something along those lines).

I didn’t look it up to confirm, or anything responsible like that, but I always understood the term to come from the fact that retailers sell such a large percentage of their stock on the Friday after Thanksgiving, that that is the point in the year their books go from being in the red (more expenses than income) to being in the BLACK (more income than expenses).

A Contract With Customers

This Black Friday, CodeCandyBlue is offering all of its virtual escape adventures, the Mars Shuttle Mission, the Mayan Temple Mission, Amnesia!, and The Cryptographer, for 50%, which is the steepest discount offered since we officially opened for business back in February.  Why such a steep discount?  And why on Black Friday?  Well, as a consumer and a cheapskate, I am such a big fan of steep discounts, and the predictability of said discounts occurring after Thanksgiving, that I am actually personally offended if I see an ad for, say 35% off.  “35% off?!?  Do you hate your customers?  Why are you so greedy?”.  That’s right, my opinion of vendors who either don’t offer Black Friday sales, or don’t offer steep enough discounts,  plummets, and I am less likely to buy from those insensitive rule-breakers again.

Mind you, this attitude easily co-exists with my constant eye-rolling at all the hyperbole surrounding Black Friday sales, and the attempts of all business to capitalize on the day/season, whether it makes sense or not (“Triple bypass surgeries, HALF OFF - today only!  Use code BLACKFRIDAYHEART at checkout!”).  Sneering hypocrisy?  Check.

So, all my virtual escape adventures are 50% off purely to avoid offending my customers.  And if the discount spurs sales, that’s just icing on the cake.

Whither Cyber Monday?

I have a confession to make.  I have not walked into a store for anything other than groceries in almost 2 years.  Sorry, brick and mortar retailers!  Black Friday originated, of course, in the days when most shopping was done in person in physical stores.  And it was limited to a single day to create a sense of urgency that if consumers didn’t buy TODAY, they would lose out on tremendous savings.  

As online retailing grew, in an attempt to grab some of the Black Friday cash, they created their own 1-day event: Cyber Monday.  Since shoppers in malls weren’t able to simultaneously search the web for deals, the online retailers had to pick a different day.  But COVID-19 and general retailing trends changed all that.  With so much shopping being done online, and competing stores a mere mouse click away, rather than a drive across town, there was pressure to move their sales earlier and earlier.  Since people weren’t going to malls anymore on Black Friday, it was safe for the online world to abandon Cyber Monday for Black Friday.  BUT, without the physical constraints of travel, it’s actually easier to customers to overbuy online, so online sales started extending the timeframe for these deals, so that we now have Black Weekend, Black Week, Black November, and the one I saw most recently - Black Autumn!  My solution to inflation?  BLACK YEAR!  Everything 50% off all year long!

CodeCandyBlue Black Friday Shenanigans

I will let you in on a little secret about CodeCandyBlue sales - they always go at least 1 day longer than advertised.  The day after my first sale event, when my only offerings were the Mars Shuttle Mission and the Mayan Temple Mission, I got an email from a customer who had seen a facebook ad for the sale, but when she added the virtual escape adventure to her cart, it rang up at the list price, because the sale was over.  I explained that while the dates in the ad were accurate, the ad had run past the end date, so that’s why she saw the ad even after the sale had ended.  But of course, she was disappointed, and didn’t buy the game.  Afterwards, I realized how stupid I had been.  Here I had someone who wanted to buy one of my escape adventures, and I turned her away because “Them’s the rules!”

To make sure that never happened again, I’ve since tacked on another day or two to the sale prices, so those who didn’t see the ad in time can still get the discounted price.  The data support that decision.  About 20% of all my discounted sales have happened after the sale officially ended.  For my first Black Friday sale, I am offering all my virtual escape adventures for 50% off from roughly the day before Thanksgiving, to roughly December 1.  Yes, that stretches the definition of Black “FRIDAY” beyond all reason, but I still call the sale “Black Friday”, because “Black Week”, or “Black 10 Days Surrounding Thanksgiving” just don’t have the same ring to them.