Black Friday: Why have we suddenly got it ??

[Garry Russell]

It wasn't that long ago that hawolwwenn wasn't what it is now. Almost a mini Christmas wwith what your little darlings need before thay go out and threaten pay up or else disguised as trick or treat.

That came from the US too.

I have nothing against them doing what they want but I do hate the fact that because it's the US we MUST follow.

Dave, I often hear about how shops make huge profits in such events but surely that's just huge taking writing off the cashflow shortfall at the expense of a reduction of value of the business. Selling things for a fraction of the price the retailer paid for it is sureley not a good long term thing, just borrowing it all from Peter, paying Paul all of it and then spending the next year paing Peter off and perhaps cuausing next years shortfall??

Or are they ripping us off so much the rest of the time they can afford to do it??

[DaveB]

Who's to say mate.. I'm not privy to that sort of info nor do I care to be

It's possible that certain sale items could be classified 'end of line' whether that be that the manufacturer has stopped that particular product or the store is de-stocking it. In the case of the Dyson.. it was a Dyson DC24 Animal which usually retails at over £300.. certainly, that's what we've been selling them for. In the BF event, they were going for £159.99 You don't get a brand new Dyson anywhere for that money hence.. they flew out of the door before I'd got out of bed I went and had a look at the hoover section after I finished work this evening and there are no DC24's to be seen and no sign they were ever there. Loads of other Dysons but no longer, the DC24. We had other stuff going cheap.. XBOX1's and PSP4's at £50 off and a whole raft of other stuff which, it has to be said, did go by the end of play yesterday.
It's ironic that when we walked in yesterday just before 8am.. you'd not have known there was a mad rush at all. The place was peace and tranquillity. I gather queues went around the building
I've no idea what mark-up there is on anything we sell. Electricals like Hoovers and that sort of thing.. you can bet they're reasonably close to SRRP but others.. it's anyones guess. While we were on the way to Sainsbags.. the wife was texting the daughter who's partner works at Tesco in Walsall. At that time of the morning, there had already been 5 arrests there! You gotta love the general public

ATB
DaveB

[Jon.M]

The fault of course lies not in the USA but with the UK retailers who imported Black Friday and the part of the public that goes overboard about it. It's a natural extension of consumerism where the meaning of life is defined by the accumulation of stuff.
We've always had the January sales, which now start on Boxing Day, and can hardly claim to be superior in that respect, and as Joe points out the proportion of people on both sides of the Atlantic who dislike what Black Friday represents may well be the same.
I expect Black Friday will arrive here as well in a few years even though sales are more controlled by the law.
Like Garry I also dislike that celebration of extortion called Trick or Treating. It's become normal here in Italy as well.

Jon

[Vancouver]

I never find anything of use in these "fantastic" sales, perhaps I'm too eclectic. Even looking thru' my fav computer retailers NCIX and TigerDirect, they are just clearing out old crap with no huge discounts on offer for stuff worth having. I never have any cash available anyhow when these sales are happening, bad planning on my part possibly.

[FlyTexas]

I never find anything of use in these "fantastic" sales...

That's what I always thought...until...I saw the 2.0 megapixel digital camera in the Black Friday advert. This was back in the day when 2.0 megapixels was pretty high tech. Back then you never read about any crazy crowds. The people at the store I visited were actually fairly civilized, but when those doors opened *whew* it was like the running of the bulls in Pamplona.

Brian