Over the past few years the American concept of Black Friday, the heavily commercialized day after thanksgiving, has steadily begun to creep into our own culture.
The first major retailer to embrace Black Friday was ASDA (which is owned by the largest retailer in America -Walmart) and in 2013 they announced their first ever “Black Friday deals” in the UK. The idea of a UK Black Friday quickly caught on and in the next year both John Lewis and Argos offered up their own sales on the 24th of November.
Nowadays, despite the initial backlash, nearly everyone seems to have just accepted that this is going to be an annual event which is still gaining in popularity. But what is wrong with this? As it seems, all this is doing is allowing people to have a chance at either saving money or getting their children’s Christmas present early. But there’s the problem; it’s only a chance.
Fortunately, it is becoming common knowledge that most “Amazing Black Friday deals” are actually just a thin façade as the price of a product is normally raised several weeks before the sale and is increased so that the discount will only go slightly under the original price tag.
By buying into these sales we are supporting what could be considered a very dishonest business practice which may tempt those who cannot afford a product into buying as the limited time period which the event operates on, creates a false sense of urgency which will lead the buyer into making a reckless purchase.
These events only happen because there is a demand for them, however it is almost impossible for a single consumer to enact any real change to the current way retailers treat these types of events. We have to encourage others around us to be more aware of how these companies can manipulate us be our own consumer.
