What Will Thanksgiving and Black Friday Shopping Look Like This Year in the Midst of a Pandemic?

The Coronavirus has made holidays and gatherings difficult in the United States and more specifically Ohio. That’s why people are curious what Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping will look like this year.

On Thanksgiving families and friends normally get together in large (or small) gatherings. With the Covid-19 guidelines, gatherings are recommended to be under 10 people. This is commonly smaller than most normal sized Thanksgiving gatherings.

Traveling around Thanksgiving will also look different. Thanksgiving is one of the most traveled days of the years with the Transportation Security Administration saying in 2018 over 26 million people traveled that year. According to NPR, “‘The airlines are enforcing mask-wearing more consistently than they were at the beginning of the pandemic, Tan says, and they are seating people farther apart.’” Airports will be filled with travelers around the holiday, meaning they’ll most likely be a hot spot for the coronavirus.

One of the biggest traditions on Thanksgiving Day is the Macy’s Day Parade in New York City that has been around for the past 90 years and is a common event people look forward to watching or attending. This year, the event will look different with people not being able to attend. But luckily, people will still be able to watch the event on television, but this year for the first time ever the event will be pre-recorded, and not live.

The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday; this is when many people go out and begin their Christmas shopping. Sometimes the shopping starts the Thursday of Thanksgiving and continues into Friday. On Black Friday and Thanksgiving, stores have sales to bring customers in. People sometimes wait in really long lines for certain stores and stores are packed closely with people. With the rush of people, Black Friday is one of the greatest business days of the year for stores and because of this they bring in a lot of money. With the Covid-19 guidelines, stores have limits on the amount of people allowed to be in the store at one time, numbers that the average amount of Black Friday shoppers would overpass easily. This means the sales in stores will most likely drop significantly compared to previous years, and will hurt businesses financially. Due to the coronavirus, many stores decided to close in Ohio on Thanksgiving Day. Some of these stores include Walmart, Macy’s, Best Buy, Bath and Body Work, Kohl’s, JCPenny’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Target. Most likely, many people will do their Black Friday shopping online this year.

This year Thanksgiving and it’s traditions will be somewhat restricted due to Covid-19, but overall Thanksgiving will go on and we will continue to celebrate the true purpose of Thanksgiving, which is to recognize all we have to be thankful for in our lives.