The latest import from the USA appears to be “Black Friday”, that day falling between Thanksgiving (on the last Thursday of November) and the weekend when everyone goes shopping and the retailers offer amazing bargains.
It’s got nothing to do with Europe, so why in the last 2-3 years have retailers here started offering Black Friday deals?
MediaMarkt – The Netherlands
“Giga-many offers on top products” for their Black Friday Cashback.
MediaMarkt – Spain
“Save on your Christmas Shopping”, and a countdown of the hours left to shop.
Amazon – UK
Amazon have a complicated series of offers for “Black Friday Deals Week”, extending their one day campaign to seven.
News promoting offers – UK
It’s even making the news, where are the best deals for Black Friday, and Cyber Monday – that’s today, the day where there is apparently a peak in online sales. The video is set to the stirring tunes of Rossini’s William Tell Overture and the scenes it depicts are enough to keep me out of stores, I guess that means that I hate crowds more than I love a bargain.
This is all happening at the same time as a movement begins in the USA to point out how consumerist Black Friday is, this popped up on my Facebook feed;
But my favourite action come from Cards Against Humanity; They closed their site for the day leaving just a “donate” button on the site. They collected over 70,000 USD.
This is one American import I hate. I do understand the marketing angle on this; all sales are good, lets drive sales. But take a moment to think about it. We’re heading into the busiest shopping season of the year, discounting right before that can’t increase your profit. But it’s a race to the bottom, once one retailer jumps on the American Bandwagon their competitors are under pressure to do the same.
I did shop on Friday, I bought milk, coffee, soap and toilet paper. There were no “Black Friday” discounts.
Change Meme 