Black Friday Vs. Cyber Monday: How Tradition is Changing and Staying the Same

Holiday shoppers hope to see deals on everything from cashmere sweaters to home décor to save the extra buck, making the holiday sales more crucial than ever. The NRF noted that many Americans are spending more money on themselves and their families this year and often shop from home.

According to the National Retail Federation, the online shopping trend has rapidly increased since 2008. Everything is about convenience, and in this day and age using mobile devices to shop and avoid the anxious holiday shoppers has trafficked nearly 13.6 billion online shoppers throughout the weekend.

Many retailers continue to offer deals in advance of Thanksgiving, taking away from the weekend shopping extravaganza. Black Friday continues to be domineered by mobile shopping, Internet sales, and eager consumers, causing many to stay home with the turkey and their iPhones rather than venture out to busy stores.

Time for a quick history lesson.

Up until the 1990’s retail was a brick and mortar store or stores placed catalog sales by mail or telephone. When AOL began selling its proprietary online services, it paved the way for sale expansion. By the mid 1990s, eCommerce began taking place, and many online transactions became more and more popular. When people had slow dial-up connections at home back in the early 2000s, they would go to work to get a high-speed Internet connection to shop on the Monday after Thanksgiving. These retailers caused a spike in digital and the NRF later coined the phrase “Cyber Monday” and then created a site, cybermonday.com.

Amazon has been giving some of its best deals on its mobile app and Apple users are buying apple products from their apple devices, according to Forbes.

However, many consumers have rotated between computers, mobile devices, and their feet to reach the best deals. These “omni-channel” sales caused 151 million people to shop this weekend, according to a recent survey by the NRF. JC Penney gave the online retailers a run for their money as it offered the biggest average savings mainstream retailer.

The store chain was amongst the earliest to open, starting sales at 3 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. But this wasn’t the case for many stores, adding a twist in Massachusetts. The state’s Blue Laws restrict business openings on Sunday and Holidays, forcing many to shop at home or to shop throughout the weekend.

The trend of Black Friday and Cyber Monday continues to go hand in hand as the percentage of online holiday shopping continues to increase. While online sales are about 10% of retail sales overall, they jump to 15% during the holiday months, and will continue to progress as more consumers reach for their mobile devices.

Midterm Assignment

Lauren Popovich and Samantha Nicles take to the streets of Boston University to gauge student reactions on how well the candidates are reaching the student population. At a time when Millennials are at the forefront of various political issues such as race, wealth inequality, climate change, etc., why are only about 20% of Millennials voting? The question facing current candidates is: why are approximately three quarters of Millennials opting to skip the polls on election day?

 Source: Boston Globe via CIRCLE 

I joined fellow BU Communications student Lauren Popovich to conduct interviews across Boston University's campus to gauge students' interest in the upcoming election. We found that BU is quite a mix of informed versus uninformed, interested versus disinterested.

In order to conclude why students are not voting in the capacity they used to, we had to dig beyond the students themselves. That is, we cannot blame Millennials as a group for not voting; we must look at society as a whole. In doing this, we may blame the culture at large.

In other words, Millennials grew up in an age so vastly different from those before them. The past few decades have witnessed astounding advances in technology. This period of innovation has coincided with Millennials' childhood, shaping the way that Millennials interact and transforming their expectations for creativity and innovation in their own work lives. Millennials themselves even cite technology as what makes their generation unique.

Source: PEW Research 

In relation to politics, this age of technology changes a lot within this group of young people. For example, technology has allowed Millennials to grow up with the idea of instant gratification. With the Internet, everything is at their fingertips and social change is as easy as starting a hashtag on Twitter or Snapchatting selfies at a rally for Syrian refugees.

Thus, Millennials no longer view societal change to be equivalent with casting their ballot in every election. Rather, they are accustomed to the more rapid change that technology and the Internet provide.

 According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE,) voting as it was is no longer an effective means of creating societal change for the average Millennial voter.

CIRCLE's director Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg said the problem of Millennial voters is only getting worse. 

"If future campaigns are interested in mobilizing large numbers of young voters," Kawashima-Ginsberg states, "research shows that campaigns not only need to talk to them, but should also involve them more as well as volunteers."

BU COM Professor John Carroll could not agree more. "It is not enough that Hillary Clinton is on Instagram or that Bernie Sanders has a Snapchat," Carroll states. These candidates have to do more to get Millennial attention.

Hillary Clinton's personal Instagram 

 Bernie Sanders admits he is new to "Snapshot" (aka: Snapchat)

 Overall, students at BU agree on the fact that candidates need to do more than exist on social media channels to get their messages to reach the Millennial generation; they need to interact and involve Millennials on those channels to gain traction in the young generation.




CIRCLE identified 12.4 million young voters who were registered but did not vote in 2014. Mobilize enough of them, in enough swing states, and you're talking about the power to alter a major election.

 

BU International Student Celebrate Non-Traditional Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, but not all BU students are giving thanks in the same way. With an international percentage at 22.9, BU holds the 12^th largest international student population in the U.S. And believe it or not, Thanksgiving is not a thing abroad.

We found that although many international students are too far from home to celebrate with family, they keep the tradition alive by spending time with friends and enjoying a large meal together.

Abroad or domestic, you do not need to eat turkey and stuffing to feel grateful this holiday; harmony, peace, and the feeling of gratitude are the underlying themes of celebration all over during this time.

Listen in as Lauren Popovich and Samantha Nicles talk to BU Students about their Thanksgiving plans.

Today.com Photo Reporting

The use of photography on today.com is extremely prevalent. Being a multimedia site its content is rich with lots video, article photos, and user-generated content of both. In general Today will use photos that reporters have taken on scene of a story, photos sent in my users of an event, or social media postings, all in order to make a story more compelling for the viewer. These same photos will then be posted to the article counterpart of an on-air story online at today.com.

 A large majority of today.com’s photo reporting can be found in these article photos, photos from that day’s show clip, or snap shots of social media postings from Instagram or Pinterest. In order to tell a story about a celebrity’s recent Instagram is it important to provide viewers with the photo. The same goes for any particular story online. During an on-air report photos will appear during a voice-over and though viewers can re-watch these segments on today.com, while they are there, they can view those photos from the segment close up, as they are placed throughout the written article covering the story.

For a majority of online articles Today utilizes the photo sources from AP and Getty Images, as well as its own photographs from reporters located at major news stories, but its man bulk of images does come form user-generated content. Subject based stories aired on Today will have photos submitted by the subject.

Every story on today.com is partnered with a subject based photo on the story. Site viewers are able to get a good grasp on what the story will detail based on simply its headline and the partnering photo. The photos make today.com lively, and with stories changing every day, in all topics, there is nothing boring about the site. Because of the topics ranging from headline news, lifestyle, home life, food, and entertainment there is a wide ranging use of photos from various sources, thus making today.com the one place where they all come together.

How-To Use Starbucks Mobile Order&Pay App

Wish you could skip that long line at Starbucks in the morning? Now you can! With the new Starbucks Mobile Order and Pay feature on the Starbucks mobile App, you can order your daily caffeine fix before heading to the store. Watch as Samantha Nicles and Lauren Popovich show you how to skip and sip!
 

   Thanks to http://www.starbucks.com/coffeehouse/mobile-order for info and graphics!