The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and, for the second year in a row, it is going to be occurring during the pandemic. For many that means holiday shopping has already begun. With online shopping already having become a mainstay in our world, people have the ease of being able to find the perfect gift with just a few clicks.
However, because so many people are now dependent on online shopping, the market has quickly become packed as more people switch from traditional to online ordering, causing delays on top of already long wait times for shipments because of the pandemic.
“There are some people who I can buy stuff for online, but I mainly stick to shopping in person,” said Dalton Webb a sophomore Nursing major at Mississippi University for Women. “Online shopping has become good and bad recently — good because you don’t have to necessarily fight anyone at Black Friday for doorbusters — but bad because of how swamped it can make mail delivery services like UPS.”
Many people have been wondering why so many holiday deals have now been pushed back from the week of Thanksgiving throughout November and December. There is some speculation that this has caused the recent backups in shipping as across the world more things are being ordered while many products are still delayed because of the pandemic.
This leaves many shopping districts with no choice but to do holiday sales whenever a product is available.
“For the US market, we are a Christmas-centric society. You could say there is a huge amount of buying and gift giving. From the marketer’s standpoint, they expect that they have to get the first dollars that they can from the customer,” said Dr. Thomas Haffey instructor of Marketing and Management in the College of Business and Professional Studies at The W. “I have a problem with the way things are marketed right now. I am a very value-conscious shopper, so I’m going to spend a lot of time comparing deals, and I can’t do that well right now. I really liked when it was Thanksgiving week and you could compare and choose the best choice, but now I don’t have the time to analyze all the deals because they come out at different times.”
Despite some of the setbacks, online shopping continues to be a popular way to buy things. Many students depend on it this time of year, especially with the possibility of sickness when going in person.
“It depends on who I’m shopping for, but I prefer shopping online as it’s easier than just spending hours at the store. I can just do it all from my phone,” said Allison Topcik a first-year graduate student in Speech-Language Pathology at The W. “I think the problems with delays and scalping is a little frustrating, but there’s nothing you can really do about it.”
Holiday shopping continues at a rapid pace, especially as Thanksgiving approaches. Despite some setbacks, students still see online shopping as one of the best ways to acquire gifts for friends and loved ones.