Black Friday was once the greatest time for deal-snatchers and appliance-purchasers. It was a holiday for the modern-day gladiator—imagine, if you will, it is the early 2000s. Black Friday approaches like the drums of war. You lined up outside of Best Buy three days ago, with tents wrapping around the block. The doors finally open, and you and hundreds of others rush in like a human tidal wave, rolling over helpless staff members and fighting in bloodsport over a Magic Bullet blender. You see a woman shoving Webkinz by the handful into her purse. Life is good.

Where did it all go so wrong?

Nowadays, the standard “Half off! 90 percent off!” is a rare sight. Instead, 10 percent discounts exist if you are lucky. Go to your local Best Buy nowadays on Black Friday, and you will find barely a soul mingling around. Where there were once fights to the death over the latest LG television, there is now a woeful five percent discount tag with not a soul lunging for it. A major economic recession and inflation can be blamed, of course. One hundred dollars in 2000 has the same amount of purchasing power as $169.95 today, with an average inflation increase of 2.14 percent per year. This means that altogether, the purchasing power of one dollar today could only buy 58.945 percent of what it could back in the year 2000, according to Statistics Canada.

This is not the only reason, however, more common is the compounding cost of living rising to record highs in British Columbia. Feeling the strain of housing costs, mortgage increases, inflation, and food prices soaring has led to a more jaded outlook on Canada’s economicsituation. Many blame rampant corporate greed for taking advantage of the economic situation caused by COVID-19 to artificially increase prices, and with it, slashing deals as well. Shrinkflation is a common phrase now: prices have risen while sizes of products have reduced. It is unfortunate to say that the age of deep discounts is over, and with it, the Black Friday culture that so many looked forward to. Nothing makes one sadder than Black Friday coming back year after year and watching prices reduce by 5 percent at most. Truly, this is a tragedy of our time.