Today is Black Friday, a time when vast legions of consumers descend onto high streets across the nation, like ants at picnic, in a frenzied attempt to get a bargain.
Black Friday is a time honoured tradition – death gambit – in the United States Of America, where – after a day of glutenous eating and giving ‘thanks’ – bargain hungry shoppers abandon all rational in order to get cheap products.
As you can imagine things turn into a proverbial (and literal) Hunger Games – it’s an ugly and downright dehumanising modern marketing ploy, which they’ve brought over to the UK…
…Only trouble is, no here seems to care.
At least not this year, as seen in the empty shopping outlets of Cardiff and Devon – it’s not to say there isn’t any interest in Black Friday, there’s just certain parts of the UK resembling a section of the Gaza Strip.
So far, there hasn’t been any cause for concern [subject to change], this may be because there’s nothing good on sale this Black Friday?
Speaking to Devon Live, Ray Soper, of Plymouth, said:
I got up at 4.30am and went to Tesco. It was rubbish, there was nothing good there at all, so I went to Asda – and they’re not even taking part in it. I’m now here at Curry’s waiting for it to open but won’t hold my breath.
I’ve come in previous years and you’ve had to queue for hours. I just think the whole thing has become a bit of a scam encouraging you to come early when in reality they’re just putting out stock they want rid of.
They’re not that good the discounts. Certainly nothing anyone would be fighting over anymore. You can tell by how quiet it is, people have started to wise up to it.
I certainly won’t bother coming again.
Another Plymouth resident, Julia Evans, told Devon Live:
I was up at 5am as I was planning on getting ahead with my Christmas shopping but as you can see, I’ve walked out empty handed. What a waste of time.
To be honest I wish I’d never bothered.
Over in Wales, the high streets of Cardiff were akin to a ghost town in the morning – when they were expecting hoards of desperate shoppers – could it be, we as a country no longer buy into the notion of Black Friday? If this is the case, could we also begin to see a downfall in footfall for this year’s Boxing Day Sales?
Black Friday has always been an ‘American thing’, which was as excuse for the rest of the international community to point and laugh at, however, when Black Friday was introduced to the UK in 2013 by Asda, (which is owned by mega-US retailer Walmart), it made other retailers sit up and take notice.
The following year it reached ridiculous proportions when police were called in across Britain when store security could no longer contain the situation – nationwide broadcasts showed members of the British public at their worst, fighting each other over ‘40% off HDTVs’ deals and marked down games consoles.
It was probably a very sobering moment for British consumers, we turned into the very thing we were once laughing at.
Maybe this is why, in 2017, no one seemingly cares about Black Friday?
Which is probably for the best!
