Elijah Cabatic, Staff Writer

On November 29th, the day we all know as Black Friday will come around again, bringing sales and hordes of deal-hungry shoppers looking for TVs, microwaves, and game consoles, but most students aren’t looking for TVs or microwaves. So, what deals are out there for us students to take advantage of and where can we find them?
Black Friday is always the Friday after Thanksgiving, but why isn’t it treated like most holiday sales (ex. Memorial Day or Labor Day) and named after the holiday? The reason for this lies in its history. The first semblances of Black Friday showed up in the late 1800s when after Thanksgiving Day parades, department stores would open their doors to begin the holiday shopping season. Many may have heard that the name comes from how the day would push a store into the “black” or “positive” profits, but according to Walden University, the name actually comes from Philadelphia’s police.
In Philadelphia, the Army-Navy game is held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving which brings large crowds from all over the US, with most of them arriving on Friday. These crowds caused a massive headache for the Philadelphia Police Department who in the vein of events such as the Black Death or the numerous uses of Black Monday, named it Black Friday. These crowds also brought profits to the stores so they also adopted the name, putting the “in the black” spin on it to make it more marketable.
I asked Lelu Daviner (10) what she was going to get on Black Friday. She said, “I’d like to buy a bunch of socks”. When I asked her why she said “Because socks are way cheaper in Black Friday, and since its in November they have the extra warm ones.” Other things I heard people were planning on getting when asked included, computers, clothing, and video games.
Many stores have massive sales on this day. Last year, according to NBC News, some of the top selling products include the Apple Airtag, Crest 3D White Strips, Anker Nano Power Bank, Fullstar Compact Vegetable Chopper, and the Nintendo Switch Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Bundle. For us students though, there are some deals that can help improve your school work as well as for personal enjoyment.
Many students at Mills prefer to use personal computers instead of school issued Chromebooks and Black Friday is full of deals on new Laptops to help you be more productive at school. Some on sale at Best Buy as of the writing of this article are the Lenovo Ideapad 1 15.6 inch model with a Ryzen 7 5700U with 16GB memory, which normally goes for $800 but is on sale for $420. Currently I believe for the price and which you get this is the best deal available at Best Buy as it comes with 16 GB of memory, a great processor which will be useful for years to come, and a decently large 512 GB SSD for any files you may keep. Some other options are the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 Touch Laptop with an AMD Ryzen 5 8640 HS and 8 GB of memory (normally $730, now $450) and if you want a Copilot+ PC the HP OmniBook X Copilot+ PC 14″ with a Snapdragon Elite (normally $1200, now $800). These computers are powerful enough to run circles around your school Chromeboook as well as be useful outside of school. If you’re looking for a Mac you may want the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch Apple M2 chip and 16 GB of memory (normally $1000, now $750).
Another thing many students reported that they wanted to buy on Black Friday was clothes. Everyone has a different style and shop at different stores, so while I can’t name every store with a sale, here are some with good deals. Everything at Old Navy will be 50% off and Nordstrom has discounts up to 70%. Some other stores which will have Black Friday sales, though have yet to advertise the exact discount as of the writing of this article are GAP, Uniqlo, and H&M.
In conclusion, Black Friday is as much a day for students as it is for anyone else. Getting something at a discount both saves money, but also allows you to get things that you would never pay full price for. It is a great day to get out there and buy the things you need and want at affordable prices.