On September 27, 2020, the famous event known as Black Friday occurred. As you most likely know, Covid-19 has forced companies around the world to put up restrictions for customers including mandatory masks/face coverings, sanitation stations, decreased capacity, and even curbside pickup or online being the only way one can shop! Black Friday happens to be the most well-known day made specifically for shopping, closely followed by Cyber Monday, the following Monday of Thanksgiving. As you can imagine, those who attended Black Friday had to follow many new applications made by the stores, to ensure everyone’s safety, in order to shop in said stores; many people have had input, positive and negative, on these current rules.

   In Casper, there were no new regulations about capacity in the most popular stores, but there were a few new rules. Like most places in the US, all shoppers had to wear some kind of face mask, that covered their whole nose and mouth. An anonymous local teen shopper comments, “I really do like wearing the masks because people don’t see when I have really bad breakouts on my chin! And, all the different hand sanitizers smell good, so I think the new changes overall are a success.” The young woman also stresses how strongly she feels people need to follow these rules, if they want to keep everyone safe. 

Many civilians don’t understand that everyone around the world is in the same boat. People in places even as far away as California need to follow rules in order to shop on Black Friday! In the average clothing store, in Orange County, only about 15-20 people are usually allowed to shop in a store, but with the intense discount day, store managers increased capacity to 25 shoppers per store. Before the global pandemic hit, stores this size held about 35 people, including staff, so for the first time in almost a year, the capacity size was close to being full, so many shoppers decided to take advantage of that; which ended up with lines around corners of locals, trying to get into shops.

After interviewing a man that thought the US was the only nation that made regulations, specifically for Black Friday, I, a staff member of the Eagle Editorial, got in contact with a friend who was born, raised, and lives in one of the main shopping capitals of the world, London, England. James, the man who lives in England, agreed with the first person who was interviewed, in the view that the new changes were both necessary and appreciated. 

Overall, the positives outweigh the negatives in terms of policies put in place for Black Friday.