Which? urged shoppers to register for alerts from favourite retailers, compare prices before setting out and realise that many deals are available online – although, with websites crawling under the pressure past year, it is best to be well-prepared so you can complete shopping quickly.
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Black Friday crowd in South Africa.
Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving in the United States, and has become synonymous with special offers and promotional prices from retailers.
Although hectic, Black Friday can be the ideal opportunity to purchase Christmas presents early or just take advantage of a great sale, but there’s more strategizing that goes into walking away with a cart full of everything you want than just showing up.
There are lots of great American imports – Netflix, Ben & Jerry’s, Oregon Pinot Noir, Boris Johnson, to name a few – but Black Friday isn’t one of them.
It’s called Black Friday because it’s often the day that many stores move into the black (which means they start making more money than they have to spend). Superdrug is heavily discounting skincare, electric toothbrushes and perfume.
Worldpay data suggests most shoppers (70%) come for the bargains but never return to their Black Friday hunting ground for the remainder of the festive season.
The Centre for Retail Research expects a slightly more modest £966 million online, but predicts total Black Friday sales including at bricks and mortar stores will reach £1.39 billion, with shopping over the entire weekend – culminating in Cyber Monday – to hit £3.49 billion.
Indeed, a Black Friday backlash appears to be gathering force at a time some traditionalists are bemoaning the way that Halloween, with its kitsch and goofy costumes and edible eyeball cakes, is slowly supplanting Guy Fawkes Day, the four- centuries-old British festival that falls on November 5.
She noted that even her tiny manicure shop in West London had emailed her its Black Friday discounts. Black Friday is a U.S. shopping tradition exported across the Atlantic by Amazon and Asda.
The online e-tailer pointed out that retailers can buy specific stock to be sold at a discount rate during a sales period, so what sounds like a top offer could be a lower quality product.
That’s not the only pitfall facing retailers on Black Friday.
Visa Europe predicts that shoppers will spend £721 million online on its cards on Friday, up from £616 million a year ago.
Martin Lewis, owner of MoneySavingExpert.com, has cautioned that the lion’s share of Black Friday arrangements “aren’t exceptional” and exhorted customers to cross-check manages things they really require. Asked why the chain had embraced Black Friday, Jack Gorman, a spokesman, appeared to attribute the phenomenon to a pack mentality.
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In 2014, USA shoppers spent $50.9-billion on Black Friday, TimesLive reports.
