“Our Black Friday occasion was unfathomably prominent a year ago so to guarantee partners have enough time to set up for the occasion this year, we will be shutting every store participating in Black Friday at 12am and reviving them at 5am”, a representative said.
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AFTER bracing themselves for a Black Friday frenzy this morning (Friday, November 27) Scunthorpe’s Tesco found its extra queuing and security measures were not needed. Tesco staggered the entry of shoppers preventing chaotic scenes like last years pre Christmas sales.
Another regular shopper, Sam McKavanagh, said that Tesco tried not to let him into a store because they weren’t sure he was there to pick up a Black Friday bargain. James Miller, senior retail advisor at Experian Marketing Services, stated: “There is little doubt Black Friday has dramatically changed the way people shop in the run-up to Christmas and has created an expectation of deep discounts in that arguably did not exist before.”Offline retailers particularly need to plan very rigorously for this new “spiky’ festive period”.
Spreading deals across many days is one way retailers are trying to ease pressure in stores and online. As a feature of our arrangements, we exhorted clients not taking an interest in the black Friday deals to visit our stores after 7am.
In the U.K., Black Friday sales events are still in their infancy.
United Kingdom retailers breathed a sigh of relief as Black Friday started without the mayhem that characterized the event a year ago. “We saw a significant increase in footfall but there were no reported problems at all”.
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Despite Asda – one of the UK’s Black Friday pioneers – stepping back from the Black Friday initiative, plenty of other retailers like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, John Lewis and Dixons remained committed to repeating Black Friday this year.
