Sign up to receiving a few emails from retailers, and the
Black Friday deals on offer today won’t seem anything out of the ordinary. Barely a
day goes by without receiving seemingly unrepeatable discount offers… until
another arrives tomorrow.
Given this background noise it’s amazing that Black Friday
has gained any traction at all. However scenes of shoppers fighting to get 50%
at best off an inflated RRP that you’d be a fool to buy at, seems to indicate that
you can sell any old tat if you slap a sale sticker on it the enduring
appeal of a discount.
Retailers are certainly giving it a go. Black Friday has
definitely entered the common parlance this year, and will probably only get
bigger over the next few years. So retailers have two options: stand aloof and
hold their noses, or get down among the frenzy and start cutting prices. It
looks like option two is the winner at the moment.
Or maybe not. Given the unsavoury images from today, I’m predicting that Black Friday will be about as welcome as a looter’s
convention in a few years. Weigh up the advantage of a few extra sales, at deep
discount, against the additional costs of opening at stupid o’clock to catch
the buzz, Fort Knox security to satisfy the local plod that they’re not going
to spend all night separating swivel-eyed bargain fans, and the cost of general
wear and tear from thousands of shoppers rampaging through the aisles trampling
over stock as they go, and it suddenly doesn’t look like such a great idea. I'm not even mentioning the first cases of store staff suing for PTSD.
I may be completely wrong, but I’ve stayed well away from
the high street today.
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