Black Friday is like Groundhog Day to me
11/11/2025
Translation: Elicia Payne
Black Friday may be the highlight of the year for you, but it’s not for me. Why’s that? I don’t really see the point in hunting for bargains that hardly exist anyway.
For me, Black Friday is Groundhog Day. Remember the film with Bill Murray, the cynical weather reporter? Every year he’s sent to Punxsutawney by his TV station to report on the shadow cast by a groundhog and with that the weather forecast for the summer. Caught in a time loop triggered by a snowstorm, he relives the day over and over again.
It’s my fifth year as the chosen reporter on Black Friday Week for our internal magazine. Every year I’ve been «super keen» to take on the communicative role. Sometimes with educational and explanatory articles, sometimes by presenting absurd Black Friday dinosaur figures. Of course, you’ll still be getting the obligatory article with the most important information about Black Friday week this year – we always adapt it slightly in an attempt to reach those who are desperately typing «Black Friday Galaxus» into Google.
Look, if you’re one of them and don’t want to miss any offers, I have a great tip for you: this year you can enable a push alert in our app so you’ll be immediately notified when there are new offers. Immediately! Don’t miss a thing!! Wow!!
Oh sorry, I’ve accidentally slipped back into I-explain-and-help mode. I actually want to do the exact opposite.
Black Friday, you should know, is the retailer’s prisoner’s dilemma. Hardly any company eagerly awaits this shopping event. If anything, it causes higher costs because they have to negotiate deals and websites have to be stabilised for an increase in traffic. Plus, with discounted prices, the profit margin’s usually lost.
If all online stores and retailers were to swear off Black Friday, we consumers could stop consuming and instead finally clear out the cellar. And, online shop employees could have more time for hobbies. However, if some suppliers still went ahead with it, there’d be a chance they’d be able to book the sales for themselves, while the competition went away empty-handed. And although profits are almost completely wiped by all the discounts, everyone continues to play the Black Friday game.
But why? Well, discounts trigger a kind of short circuit in our brains and switch off rationality (link in German). Red signs with discounts prevent us from questioning whether we need anything at all. And to stop you from thinking, there’s often talk of limited quantities and limited time periods. With that, your brain’s put into a kind of hunting mode.
Seems rational but its not
You, yes I mean you, aren’t like the rest. You’re like me. We won’t be taken by surprise. We have a plan. We know exactly what we want, and we anticipate and hope that we’ll get the product of our choice at a bargain price on Black Friday. Just as weather reporter Phil hopes every evening that he’ll wake up the next morning and experience a new day instead of the same one all over again.
We’re prepared, we’ve saved the product to watch lists, have e-mail alerts for the price comparison or maybe even already have it in our cart to be on the safe side. Ready to strike when the magical message comes with the price reduction. When. Or, rather, if at all.
I suppose it’s not much different to people that play the lottery. You’d need a fair bit of luck for your favourite product to make it onto the infamous Black Friday list. And even if you’re lucky, you’ll probably save less money than you think. Companies and online stores don’t do Black Friday deals out of charity and love for their customers. Nothing’s gifted.
«Since when is Galaxus a charity?»
Margins are particularly low for electronic products. In many cases, a 20 per cent discount means that the retailer won’t make anything. Higher discounts are often only available on last year’s models or discontinued models that urgently need to be removed from stock. However, the price of these products would be reduced over time anyway. At Digitec and Galaxus, this has been transparent since 2021 with the price history for each product. That’s why everyone can find the answer there if they want to know whether prices are artificially inflated before Black Friday Week. Spoiler: they’re not.
And anyway, manufacturers and retailers don’t need Black Friday to sell current and highly sought-after products. There are always sales throughout the year anyway: daily deals, summer sale, winter sale, free watch combos, 10 per cent cashback, Dutch auctions and so on and so forth. It’s almost like being at a fast fashion retailer, in pre-mid-spring season super sale, where I can get an extra discount by spinning the wheel of fortune. Or when you want a phone subscription; Black Friday has no choice but to sell you a cheap subscription, which is then raised to the «normal price» after twelve cheap months have expired.
Free yourself!
There are many ways to get a kick out of life. Sport would be my personal recommendation. Both sport and shopping provide an adrenaline rush. And both leave you in pain. The pain after sport is healthier in the long term and passes quickly. The product that you once really wanted and bought on Black Friday, on the other hand, sits in your cupboard for ages before you find a way of getting rid of it for a mere few francs secondhand.
Put an end to Black Friday stress! You can do it. Then be as chill as this user.
I don’t need big discounts. The net price must be correct.
The more people that think like him, the sooner Black Friday will hopefully become a thing of the past. And I can free myself from my personal groundhog trap. Yes, even in the movie – spoiler alert! – Phil Connors can only leave the loop of the repetitive Groundhog Day after he has conquered his old ego and become a truly good person.
Now it’s your turn. What do you think of Black Friday? Is it a shopping holiday for you? What excites you? What makes you bitter? Or are you fascinated by the science behind this type of selling? If so, I can recommend the following three books.
Reference books
Die Gesetze der menschlichen Natur - The Laws of Human Nature
German, Robert Greene, 2019
Header image: Shutterstock
Martin Jungfer
Head of Content
Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.chJournalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.
Background information
Interesting facts about products, behind-the-scenes looks at manufacturers and deep-dives on interesting people.
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