The Psychology Of Black Friday Shoppers And Your Smoke Shop

Freud, Jung, and now Got Vape Wholesale - all luminaries of thought beleaguered by our unquenchable thirst to further understand the mind and find that one missing piece of the puzzle that finally explains the quixotical conundrum that is the human psyche.

Well okay, our inclusion on that list may be a bit premature, but the self help guru’s dominating our feeds these days have been all about “proactive manifestation”, that and buying matcha healing crystals for suspicious price points…

Regardless, welcome to Psych 101! Sharpen your pencils and shine your apples because Got Vape Wholesale is here to provide some schooling on the psychology of Black Friday and how you can take advantage of it to delight your customers, make record profits, and close out 2025 in a strong monetary position.

With only 6 weeks until the big day rolls around, the time is nigh to gain an insight into the minds of your shoppers and perfect your Black Friday sales strategies. Keep reading this exclusive psychological exploration and beat out the competition with help from good old Dr. GV Wholesale!

Table of Contents:

Why Is It Called Black Friday?
Why Are Customers Drawn To Black Friday?
The Long Line Phenomena aka Social Proof
Thrill Of The Hunt
Saving To Give
Retail Therapy
The Fear Of Missing Out
How Can My Smoke Shop Lean Into Black Friday Psychology?
When Is Black Friday 2025?

Why Is It Called Black Friday?

From the signing of the Declaration Of Independence to putting cheez wiz on steak, all the way back to discovering that institutionalized bullying could be rebranded as sports fandom (*cough cough* Go Birds) the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, has put quite a few dents in history, but none quite as substantial as being the originator of the term we all know today as Black Friday.

Originally used by members of the Philly Police to describe the congested traffic and swaths of holiday shoppers that would descend upon the city. The resulting chaos of commerce gave way to them dreading the day, henceforth referring to it as Black Friday in reference to such negative events as the Black Plague and 1869 Black Friday market crash.

In an ultimately doomed attempt to rebrand, stores attempted to refer to the event as “Big Friday” but that ended up being a big failure, as we all know that the term has stuck around and over the decades grown in popularity to become a ubiquitous day revered, feared, and forever a part of our history.

Thus from its very origins, the notion of Black Friday has manifested itself as a disruptive event that shakes up the economic market and results in customers purchasing at rates far greater than any other time of year, a truth that has held true all the way till today.

This shows that the psychological seed of the Black Friday phenomenon was planted decades ago, rooting itself into the consciousness of American society so deeply that we’ve even begun to export the idea to other countries, as foreign markets across the globe run their own sales events.

Despite being born from Thanksgiving, the aforementioned national holiday has ended up the real turkey, as Black Friday moves on to dominate headlines, draw vast crowds, and give you a serious boost to your bottom line.

Why Are Customers Drawn To Black Friday?

Like a moth to flame and A.I. to the destruction of mankind, humans have a unique psychological attraction to sales that charts all the way back to ancient times, when Zogg the caveman decided he’d do 2 for 1 rocks at the boulder club, after all a deal is a deal.

Fast forward a few thousand years to today and the worship of saving big continues strong, with the pinnacle of sales mania reaching fever pitch on Black Friday of course.

To understand why exactly customers are so drawn to this, we thought it would be most digestible to split each of the reasons into broad stroke categories. Below you’ll find all of the major psychological components to the sales holiday and gain a bit of insight on consumer motivations.

The Long Line Phenomena aka Social Proof

People often say - “If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?” - with the moral of the story being no, don’t just blindly follow those around you. But what if we told you the reality is as human beings we are hardwired to do exactly the opposite!

Due to a little phenomenon called social proof, whenever we as humans are unsure what to think, we default to what others are doing. Thus when a mass amount of customers are all crowding around a store, this leads to a domino effect of more and more people coming to see what’s going on.

This monkey see, monkey do tendency is coded into our DNA originally as a method to keep us alive from predators, but now flipped to encourage us to rush to stores for discounts due to the immense social pressure to conform.

It’s the same reasoning as when every time a line breaks out in NYC, people are inevitably drawn to join it in the hope that something good is on the other end. After all, if so many people are waiting for something it has to be worth it right?

That’s why Black Friday is so effective, it snowballs customers' desires to save by constantly inundating them with various options to do so. While nine out of ten sales will be ignored , when they see that certain sale that speaks to their preferences, they are already primed to buy - after all it’s Black Friday everyone is buying, why not follow along?

Thrill Of The Hunt

In the past people used to have to hunt in order to survive, if you didn’t come back with that sabertooth tiger for dinner well tough - it’s twigs and berries if you're lucky. Thus humans began to evolve our sensibilities and crave the rush of the hunt almost as much as the meal they fought for.

Nowadays instead of sharpening our spears, we simply brave the Whole Foods parking lot to get out provisions, but the innate desire to seek out the thrill remains and seems to get activated every November right when Black Friday sales roll around with their promise of discounted luxuries.

Much in the same way our ancestors hunted to survive, consumers now get a massive dopamine boost from landing a good deal on a dry herb vaporizer, dab rig, or other accessory they’ve been looking at, but were previously priced out of.

Thus every Black Friday throngs of customers will pour through, all looking to land that elite deal that they can take back to their friends and marvel at the excellence they just saved on. This drives people out of bed early and onto the streets to track down savings and receive that satisfying rush.

The thrill of the hunt produces an almost competitive mindset amongst some customers, as they see the abundance of discounts as a challenge for them to navigate and conquer. In this instance, your smoke shop’s sales are simply providing the fuel for their fire and allows you to cash in on our own innate tendencies.

Saving To Give

Putting a saccharine filter worthy of Whoville over the proceedings, we have the reality that a large portion of customers are coming out on Black Friday not for themselves, but to take advantage of discounts that let them afford gifts for loved ones that would normally be out of reach.

Nothing quite beats the hit of dopamine that comes from making someone’s day with a well timed holiday gift. The sense of satisfaction far exceeds that of receiving gifts and is a huge mental motivation for many customers coming in looking to save at your shop.

The desire to make a holiday dream come true is a strong enough psychological motivator that people line up outside Walmarts in frigid temperatures, enduring the temporary indignities and colossal waste of time in order to see a smile on someone's face.

Now luckily for us our smoke shops don’t have the same scale of the big box stores, but the thought process carries over to the traffic you’ll receive on Black Friday. Shoppers coming in right at opening, looking to stretch their dollar as far as possible in order to get that ultimate gift that just makes the holiday.

This altruistic motivator is extremely powerful and one that you can easily tap into by crafting worthwhile bundles and stocking attractive cutting edge options with enough “star power” so to speak to scratch that extra special holiday itch.

As a business owner, being able to cater to these types of customers is a great way not to just ease their psyche, but your own! Nothing beats doing the right thing and hey so what if you're making profits at the same time, it’s a win win in our books.

Retail Therapy

On the other side of the coin, we have the equally powerful psychological motivator of good old fashioned retail therapy and the boost in mood you get when doling out for something you really want to get your hands on.

Essentially It feels good to spend or as it’s referred to in ancient Gregorian texts “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” or maybe that was an ABBA album, either way - the simple fact is that people like to buy on Black Friday because it just feels good.

With lower prices, bulk deals, and an overall air of excitement going on in the air all contributing to our inner lizard brains taking over and demanding that we take part in the season of buying to satisfy this primordial instinct.

Thus the reality is people love to spend their money and Black Friday simply makes that much easier with the slew of incentives further triggering our pavlovian response to break out the plastic and rack up some charges.

This is where your smoke shop steps in to provide your customers an outlet and tap into the overall Black Friday feeding frenzy that’s going on, with blood already in the water all you have to do is throw in a little chum with hot ticket items like the Puffco New Proxy Concentrate Vaporizer to get people biting.

When you create sales that actually offer something, you’re laying the groundwork that will have customers eager to hand over their money and satisfying their itch to treat themselves to something special, all with the ready to go mental excuse that it’s on sale.

The Fear Of Missing Out

While most of the psychology processes we’ve discussed feature positive motivators, there lies the more anxiety ridden wasteland that is customer FOMO or the fear of missing out.

A tangled web of emotions, social pressure, and our own primal instincts, FOMO drives a significant amount of traffic on Black Friday as customers are influenced by an innate desire to not be the only one left out of the savings, doomed to pay full price later on.

Instead, to alleviate this feeling of discomfort many consumers will force themselves out on Black Friday just to ensure that they at least tried to see what was available and aren’t left with a permanent state of “what could have been” if they chose to ignore the deals altogether.

While always a factor in our thinking, social media has caused FOMO tendencies to absolutely explode. Now that customers can see influencers, their friends, and others living up the fruits of their Black Friday deals - they are conditioned to want the exact same for themselves.

Having deals that range from big ticket items like a PAX Flow Dry Herb Vaporizer all the way to affordable accessories like a Wulf Mods 4pc 65mm Bevel Grinder 6pk gives these customers the chance to really go big or make a small purchase - both helping them get over any FOMO.

This way no one has to go home empty handed if they don’t want to and any FOMO symptoms can be easily assuaged. At the same time, you're going to be slowly ratcheting up the sales and making your Black Friday event even more effective.

A great way to up the ante on FOMO, is to make sure you have some eye-catching new releases like the Storz & Bickel Veazy Portable Dry Herb Vaporizer in stock, as well as its accessories like the Storz & Bickel Veazy Travel Case.

Now you don’t have to even offer a discount on the actual Veazy Vaporizer device, but instead knock off a few % points off the Travel Case if you purchase the initial device. This helps get customers to make that mental jump in their mind and fully justifies their purchase as they get to enjoy the latest tech.

How Can My Smoke Shop Lean Into Black Friday Psychology?

With the mind of the Black Friday consumer fully dissected, it’s time to jam it all in a blender and condense this ad hoc lesson in consumer psychology into one, digestible blend of ground up knowledge.

To do so, we wanted to add one last special ingredient by introducing you to the phenomenon that is the Ponzo Effect, an optical illusion wherein two lines appear to be different sizes, despite both being the exact same length.

This is a result of the surrounding objects altering how our minds process the image, confusing our eyes and tricking our brain into over inflating the size of one line, despite there being no difference between the two.

The most common and effective artistic demonstration of the Ponzo Effect lies with a set of train tracks approaching the horizon, with two large lines in the middle that appear to grow in size the further down they are, a simple distortion that causes our brains to believe a lie.

Thus we come to the reality of Black Friday consumer psychology, a day that causes its own Ponzo Effect by distorting how people view what is just a normal Friday in November as something bigger, all due to the surroundings of merchants and smoke shops just like yourself.

By setting up doorbuster deals, offering limited early entry, and playing up the hype of the day through pure enthusiasm, you’re setting the scene for customers to see a solution to their own individual psychological standpoint in your smoke shop and the deals that you have awaiting them.

As the ring leader of your own Black Friday circus, it’s your job to create the show that customers want to see and transform this day into a spending holiday that genuinely feels special enough to warrant the hype.

Absolutely everything about your smoke shop should be geared towards the day, from your exterior signage advertising the upcoming savings all the way to your attitude behind the cash register, it all ads up to convince the consumer psyche to actually show up and spend big.

While there is no one set path to follow, the biggest step you can take is to be genuine in all aspects of your Black Friday sales including your attitude, the actual discounts, and how you let shoppers know about what’s coming.

Get yourself excited and speak to shoppers beforehand with genuine enthusiasm about the upcoming deals to create a united message that feels real. When your customers see you as a genuine individual, they’ll intrinsically put more stock in the potential of your sale as they trust you to deliver.

When it comes to discounts, don’t try to pull the wool over anyone's eyes with a two-bit sale that doesn’t amount to much. With a quick google search, customers will be able to see if they are actually getting a deal instantly and can double check your offer on demand. Be genuine and make it worth their while, while still keeping a profit for yourself of course.

This way your Black Friday shoppers immediately see the value offered by your sale and will stick around to see what else you have in store. All of this ensures you're putting your best foot forward to do right by your customers, make a tremendous amount of sales, and close out the year with strength.

When Is Black Friday 2025?

Don’t miss the starting gun, this year Black Friday is on November 27th 2025!

While fast approaching, this still gives you plenty of time to review your inventory, fill the gaps, and utilize your insider knowledge on consumer psychology to achieve sales margins greater than ever.

With just under 6 weeks to go until the big day, products have time to ship and you can batten down the hatches so that when Black Friday does roll around, you can simply sit back and let your efforts speak for themselves for an absolute windfall of success.

For more market investigations, product breakdowns, and other industry news make sure to take a look at our Got Vape Wholesale Smoke Shop Business Blog right here.

This year we’ve investigated the top google results for smoke shops, examined the power of box set displays on the shelf, and introduced best sellers including the Puffco New Proxy Concentrate Vaporizer.