Panini America Makes Tough Decision to Shelve Black Friday, Cyber Monday Promotions for 2020

In a normal year, early November would coincide with Panini America officials, hobby shops and group-break sites across North America feverishly planning to participate in Panini America’s popular and successful Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions. But 2020 is not a normal year. In fact, it’s a year literally quite unlike any in our history.

The complications stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic have been felt by everyone in this country for the last eight months — and those complications have led Panini America officials to cancel — for 2020 only — the Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions. The decision to shelve the two promotions for this year was a difficult one but one that was made out of necessity.

Simply, the Panini America printing facility shutting down for six weeks earlier this year due to the state of Texas COVID-19 mandate put literally every product yet to come six weeks behind. While company officials have done their best to maximize time and opportunities to catch up, those efforts have left programs such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday with no window to produce.

“We look forward to these promotions just as much as the collecting community does and we sincerely regret having to temporarily cancel them for 2020,” said Panini America Sales Director Kevin Haake. “We look forward to getting back to some sense of normalcy in the year ahead and to returning Black Friday and Cyber Monday to the industry. And as we get back on schedule, we also look forward to continue delivering programs to the hobby such as Player of the Day and Father’s Day.”