Cyber Monday Doesn't Really Exist?

from the self-fulfilling-prophecy dept

Like many others, I’m sure, last week I started hearing people talking about “Cyber Monday.” I couldn’t recall ever hearing of such a thing before. The idea was that the Monday after Thanksgiving, when everyone got back to work, was some huge day of online shopping — the equivalent of “Black Friday” (the day after Thanksgiving) in the offline shopping world. The term even made it into “The Daily Show” Monday evening. So where did the concept come from? I’m sure it won’t surprise many people to discover that it was all made up by a bunch of online marketers trying to boost online sales. They came up with the idea a couple weeks ago, and rushed out a press release last week — and suddenly fiction was considered “fact.” Of course, they could have picked a better day. Apparently, the Monday after Thanksgiving has traditionally been the twelfth busiest shopping day for online stores — which seems a lot less interesting. Still, with all this attention, it appears that the concept of Cyber Monday may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.


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Comments on “Cyber Monday Doesn't Really Exist?”

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19 Comments
sub ubi says:

modem monday?

if they had to make up a fake name for some non-existent occurrence, why Cyber Monday? do people even use the term “cyber” in association with other words anymore? well, aside from one word.

maybe that was part of the plan, to use a semi-outdated word to give the phrase some credence. “oh cyber monday? we’ve been calling it that since ’99. where were you?”

LoneWolf (user link) says:

how silly

I heard this Cyber Monday thing on the radio after Thanksgiving leaving me rather confused as I’d never heard of such a thing. I was worried that somehow I managed to miss out on some internet celebration for all these years.

A popular day for online shopping seems strange though. I buy everything online except food, and the major benefits are that things are cheaper, and I can browse and purchase items at any hour of the day or week. I was keeping an eye on BestBuy’s “deals” people waited all night for. Many of them could be found or better online.

Don’t try that marketing crap on me. I’ll buy stuff whenever I damned well feel like it.

The Cable Guy says:

Cyber Monday

The world is ran by Money! The retail market supplies most of this Money! We supply this Money to the retail market! If we can keep a few Duckets in our pockets I say let there be Cyber Monday! If we are going to buy why not save a little and maybe get two things that we want instead of one. We still give our Money to the man and get what what we want. I know it’s hard to swallow but think about it; this is how commerence works. I’ll see you all online…

The Cable Guy says:

Cyber Monday

The world is ran by Money! The retail market supplies most of this Money! We supply this Money to the retail market! If we can keep a few Duckets in our pockets I say let there be Cyber Monday! If we are going to buy why not save a little and maybe get two things that we want instead of one. We still give our Money to the man and get what what we want. I know it’s hard to swallow but think about it; this is how commerence works. I’ll see you all online…

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