Higher Prices Hit the Holiday Season as Black Friday Approaches

Americans will pay higher prices for a range of goods and services for the Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday shopping this year, and it looks like things may only get worse as we draw nearer to Christmas.

Those driving for the holidays and of course those preparing the Thanksgiving meal will pay the price this year. Federal inflation data from the Commerce Department shows energy costs have risen 17.6% in the past year, and overall food costs increased 10.9% in the same time.

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Thanksgiving Dinner, Travel, Black Friday Shopping More Expensive as Inflation Continues to Rise

People on an escalator in an indoor shopping mall

As Americans prepare for Thanksgiving this year, traveling and cooking a family dinner will be significantly more expensive.

Inflation has increased by more than 6.2% this year, according to the consumer price index (CPI), representing the highest rate of price hikes in nearly 31 years.

In January 2021, before Biden “took over the presidency, annual inflation was at a stable 1.4 percent,” Americans for Tax Reform notes. “While inflation has already hit American families hard, President [Joe] Biden is pushing policies which would make this problem even worse.”

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The History of Cyber Monday

  The year is 2004, both Ellen Davis and Scott Silverman, who work for Shop.org, are conducting research when they happened to stumble upon key information that would, in turn, create a new annual online shopping tradition. Research showed them that the Monday after Thanksgiving was one of the biggest shopping days of the year. With that finding, the two created a marketing campaign that would encourage people to buy more things for the holidays. A year later in 2005, the first “Cyber Monday” was announced. The first Cyber Monday saw shoppers spending $484 million. Just five years into the shopping holiday in 2010, it reached $1 billion. Ever since, the line between Cyber Monday and Black Friday has become increasingly blurred. More and more companies have started to put their exclusive deals online rather than in the shops. In 2018, people spent a record $7.9 billion on Cyber Monday, according to CNBC. This was more than was spent on Black Friday online shopping in 2018 where people spent over $6.2 billion. It is common for Americans to buy holiday presents between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Last year, Amazon sold over 180 million items from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber…

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Commentary: Black Friday Is Capitalism at Its Most Beautiful

I went to a Daily Mass on Black Friday last year. The priest didn’t waste too much time with the homily, but he made a few comments about Thanksgiving and a statement about Black Friday which I found hopefully refreshing. He said, “This is a day for the poor.” Of course, he’s right, but how often do we think of Black Friday in those terms? As Thanksgiving and Black Friday approach once again, let us reflect on this concise but incredibly profound statement.

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The Best Black Friday Deals on the Internet

Note: We’ll be updating this through Cyber Monday. For the deal seeker, there are few days headier than Black Friday (and maybe the day after Christmas). Unlike, say, Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday is kind of a monster we’re always trying to tackle to the ground, one that grows more limbs every year. The “Black Friday” discounts started over a week ago, and almost every major retailer is making it seem like they’re going all-out this year. The number of deals out there is dizzying. How do you cut through the crud? We’ve be populating a list of the best deals all weekend long. …

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