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Black mood about Black Friday

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Clitheroekid
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Black mood about Black Friday

#460528

Postby Clitheroekid » November 24th, 2021, 11:50 am

Might I suggest some new legislation, namely the Black Friday (Abolition) Act 2021?

I'm sick to death of this vile American import. Every damn email I receive at present seems to be a pathetic Black Friday sale promotion, even if what's being flogged is as dull as a course on landlord and tenant law.

But even the original idea of persuading us to buy yet more unwanted tat seems out of kilter with the times. I'd like to think that many people are falling out of love with the belief that buying stuff induces happiness - or perhaps it's just wishful thinking on my part ...

Grrr! :x

DrFfybes
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Re: Black mood about Black Friday

#460540

Postby DrFfybes » November 24th, 2021, 12:14 pm

We avoided going into town last weekend to avoid it. I did pop to the garden centre on Sunday and got stuck behind someone with a small basket which turned out to contain about 1800 tiny pieces of Xmas landfill.

I've since realised that the official day has yet to come, and that there are about 14 Fridays in November, most of them Black.

Strange thing is that most of the time stuff is the same price before or after, only once have I found a deal never repeated, which was a DeWalt drill from Screwfix, and they'd run out when I got there :(

Paul

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Re: Black mood about Black Friday

#460542

Postby 6Tricia » November 24th, 2021, 12:25 pm

I've never subscribed to Black Friday but I bought new pyjamas online a few weeks ago, waited to see how they 'wash and wear' and decided to order some more on Saturday. Very happy to find that they were reduced for Black Friday by £5.79 - and I wasn't even thinking about discounts!

Tricia

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Black mood about Black Friday

#460546

Postby UncleEbenezer » November 24th, 2021, 12:39 pm

Clitheroekid wrote:I'm sick to death of this vile American import. Every damn email I receive at present seems to be a pathetic Black Friday sale promotion, even if what's being flogged is as dull as a course on landlord and tenant law.
Grrr! :x

I forget which year it was I added "black friday" manually to my spam filter.

My email this year is hitherto free of that particular blight.

stevensfo
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Re: Black mood about Black Friday

#460592

Postby stevensfo » November 24th, 2021, 3:25 pm

Clitheroekid wrote:Might I suggest some new legislation, namely the Black Friday (Abolition) Act 2021?

I'm sick to death of this vile American import. Every damn email I receive at present seems to be a pathetic Black Friday sale promotion, even if what's being flogged is as dull as a course on landlord and tenant law.

But even the original idea of persuading us to buy yet more unwanted tat seems out of kilter with the times. I'd like to think that many people are falling out of love with the belief that buying stuff induces happiness - or perhaps it's just wishful thinking on my part ...

Grrr! :x


I don't get many email like this and have no idea when this weird Friday is. Rather confusing. Has it already passed or not? Why is it called 'Black Friday'?

Is it followed by Bluey White Monday when all washing detergents are reduced in price? Or 'Boring grey Tuesday' when trousers come down? ;)


Steve

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Re: Black mood about Black Friday

#460594

Postby Urbandreamer » November 24th, 2021, 3:33 pm

Well my son asked for some specific headphones for christmas.

On friday the Amazon price dropped by 30%, what can I say.

As for why Black Friday, as I understand the name came from how busy A&E and the other emergency services are in the States.
https://money.com/car-accidents-thanksg ... ck-friday/

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Re: Black mood about Black Friday

#460607

Postby nimnarb » November 24th, 2021, 4:36 pm

The Origin Of Black Friday. I tried to copy the link but just couldn’t do so. Credit to Huffingtin post.

When a day is preceded by “black,” that’s usually an indication that it was pretty bad day (hello, Black Monday). Black Friday had a similar connotation.
The very earliest use of the phrase Black Friday dates to 1869 and had nothing to do with Christmas shopping. It was the day plummeting gold prices caused a market crash, the effects of which were felt by the U.S. economy for years.
The first mentions of Black Friday as we know it are said to have occurred around the 1950s or ’60s in Philadelphia, coined by traffic police who dreaded the day.
“The Philadelphia Police Department used the term to describe the traffic jams and intense crowding of the downtown retail stores,” said David Zyla, an Emmy-winning stylist and author of “How to Win at Shopping.” He noted that one of the first uses of the term in print appeared in an ad in a 1966 issue of The American Philatelist, a magazine for stamp collectors.
An archived excerpt of this ad appears in a thread on The Linguist List, an online forum operated by the Indiana University Department of Linguistics:
“Black Friday” is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It is not a term of endearment to them. “Black Friday” officially opens the Christmas shopping season in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing.
There’s additional evidence to suggest that this unflattering term originated among police in Philadelphia. The late Joseph P. Barrett, a longtime police reporter and feature writer for the Philadelphia Bulletin, reminisced about his part in the use of Black Friday in a 1994 Philadelphia Inquirer article headlined, “This Friday Was Black With Traffic”:
In 1959, the old Evening Bulletin assigned me to police administration, working out of City Hall. Nathan Kleger was the police reporter who covered Center City for the Bulletin.
In the early 1960s, Kleger and I put together a front-page story for Thanksgiving and we appropriated the police term “Black Friday” to describe the terrible traffic conditions.

However, local police weren’t the only ones who loathed this day. “The ratio of sales personnel-to-customers added to the pandemonium, as the frequent custom at the time was for sales associates to call in sick on this day to extend their Thanksgiving holiday weekend,” Zyla said.
Indeed, in another archived clip from a piece titled “Tips to Good Human Relations for Factory Executives,” which was published in a 1951 issue of Factory Management and Maintenance, the author describes rampant absenteeism the Friday after Thanksgiving:
“Friday-after-Thanksgiving-itis” is a disease second only to the bubonic plague in its effects. At least that’s the feeling of those who have to get production out, when the “Black Friday” comes along. The shop may be half empty, but every absentee was sick ― and can prove it.
It’s not clear whether Black Friday was a common expression as early as 1951 or if the author of the article was simply being clever, but one thing’s for sure: Not a whole lot of people were fans of that day.
Lipstick On A Pig

Not surprisingly, retailers didn’t love the use of the gloomy term “Black Friday” to describe one of their biggest revenue days. So they put a positive spin on it.
“Black Friday joins a long list of days that have taken on new meaning over time,” Zyla said. As early as 1961, public relations professionals attempted to change the public’s perception of Black Friday. In an issue of Public Relations News, an industry newsletter, the author described efforts by one well-known PR executive to change the day from “Black” to “Big” in order to solidify its reputation as a day of family fun and shopping:
Hardly a stimulus for good business, the problem was discussed by the merchants with their Deputy City Representative, Abe S. Rosen, one of the country’s most experienced municipal PR executives. He recommended adoption of a positive approach which would convert Black Friday and Black Saturday to Big Friday and Big Saturday. The media cooperated in spreading the news of the beauty of Christmas-decorated downtown Philadelphia, the popularity of a “family-day outing” to the department stores during the Thanksgiving weekend, the increased parking facilities, and the use of additional police officers for guaranteeing a free flow of traffic.
The name “Big Friday” didn’t stick, but continued efforts to put a positive spin on the day eventually paid off. Today, most consumers associate Black Friday with the black ink retailers see from increased sales.
“Retailers have little concern today with the origin of the name but have taken full advantage of its global recognition as a day (along with Cyber Monday) to make a significant portion of their yearly sales with one-day-only and doorbuster promotions,” Zyla said. Online sales alone during Black Friday 2019 reached a record $7.2 billion, up 14% from the previous year.
It’s a great day for retailers, but Black Friday has always represented the dark side of American consumerism, too. Over the years, frenzied crowds competing for discounted merchandise have resulted in violence and injuries, including 12 deaths. And even though shoppers probably won’t have to deal with gridlocked roads and overcrowded stores this year as social distancing is enforced, the financial devastation experienced by businesses and individuals alike as a result of the pandemic will surely cast an element of gloom over this day.
So if you decide to participate in one of the biggest shopping days of the year, try to have a bit of compassion for others. Consider staying home and scoring deals from the comfort and safety of your computer. If you do have to go out, wear a mask. Most important, give yourself a break if your budget is tight this year. After all, Black Friday isn’t the cheerful holiday retailers want you to believe it is.

didds
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Re: Black mood about Black Friday

#460644

Postby didds » November 24th, 2021, 6:11 pm

all (I know ois that ive had to cow tow to last second demands for website montiopring stuff doe retail websites that I help support, with very loose terms of reference.

Its not quite as bad but they mayas well be asking "Please add monitoring to check that thing that might go wrong"

I'll be glad when its gone.

meanwhile if anyone spots a BF deal for pajamas please lket me know. Wife's xmas present y'see.

And also bluetooth in ear bud thingies cos she managed to somehow get a iphone that has no aux port FGS!

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Re: Black mood about Black Friday

#460787

Postby Gerry557 » November 25th, 2021, 11:04 am

When it first came "over ere" there were some good discounts to be had. Then you got the mob mentality, large crowds surging into shops and fighting each other.

Not a great advert for the shops, shopkeepers or the shoppers. Nobody likes to see adults snatching items out of a child's hands, abuse of the shop staff etc.

I remember Curry's implementing a queuing system where they would count down 2 hours until you could view the website. I thought this was a tactic rather than a genuine sale to drive you to thinking you were on to something. The queue could also be bypassed if you knew how.

Now a days there might be some price reductions but a tenner off a £400 TV is neither here or there and I would not be going fighting in a shop to save a tenner. Maybe if it was a 77" OLED TV @£1500 rather than the normal £3k+

The last few years have been disappointing as far as Black Friday is concerned. I suppose retailers now fear the consequences more so drag it out for longer. Ive seen Black Friday sales for almost two weeks with little in the way of bargains. Why would they want to deprive them selves of future income.

I thought that was the idea behind the Boxing day sales, to get us out spending again after Christmas.

Amazon have the occasional deal for prime members but is often limited to a few items and for a set period but at least they can sell the headlines. I suppose like loss leaders in the supermarkets. Sell your 20p loaf of bread but you are likely to profit on the rest of the stuff customers usually add to the basket.

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Re: Black mood about Black Friday

#460791

Postby pje16 » November 25th, 2021, 11:12 am

Thanks for the memory trip back to the retail shops
I haven't done that for well over 20 years
A few mouse clicks and delivered to home with no hassle, and zero risk of Covid-19 as well
Why go to the shops :roll:

Gerry557
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Re: Black mood about Black Friday

#460906

Postby Gerry557 » November 25th, 2021, 4:55 pm

Why go to the shops? YouTube black Friday madness.

Why would you want to miss it

You don't have to buy nowt

Arborbridge
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Re: Black mood about Black Friday

#460909

Postby Arborbridge » November 25th, 2021, 5:00 pm

pje16 wrote:Thanks for the memory trip back to the retail shops
I haven't done that for well over 20 years
A few mouse clicks and delivered to home with no hassle, and zero risk of Covid-19 as well
Why go to the shops :roll:


Oh dear, I do find that sad.

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Re: Black mood about Black Friday

#460910

Postby pje16 » November 25th, 2021, 5:03 pm

Sad - why?
makes a lot of sense to me :D

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Re: Black mood about Black Friday

#460919

Postby 88V8 » November 25th, 2021, 5:49 pm

Arborbridge wrote:
pje16 wrote:Thanks for the memory trip back to the retail shops
I haven't done that for well over 20 years
A few mouse clicks and delivered to home with no hassle, and zero risk of Covid-19 as well
Why go to the shops :roll:


Oh dear, I do find that sad.

So do I.
If we all sit at home clicking, one day those shops will be gone.
On the other end of our clicks it will be robots serving us from automated warehouses, delivered by autonomous boxes on wheels.
We'll do our bi-weekly main shop on Saturday, farmers' market + Waitrose.

However, tomorrow between 1200h & 1300h, I can get 50x (fifty times) Nectar points on eBay, and I have a purchase teed up, something I can't get in the local shops.
Now I just have to remember to buy it :?

V8

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Re: Black mood about Black Friday

#460921

Postby bungeejumper » November 25th, 2021, 5:51 pm

You know what it's about? I'll tell ya, guv. Back in the good old days, when life was cheap, you could reckon on a good old punch-up any time you wanted one. From Bradford to Bermondsey, you'd come home on a Friday night with a couple of black eyes and few new scars and everything would be just normal. But not now.

Oh no, we have to get our kicks (and our punches, and our body blows) by turning up once a year at some poxy chain store where everybody else with an IQ of seventy or less has also come along for the rumble. Pre-arranged combat, it is. Because everybody in the shop knows what stuff they're selling off cheap, because they've emailed us all and bloody well told us in advance, ain't they?. And all we have to do is muscle up and down a few breakfast lagers, and then start beating the crap out of each other for the 105 inch telly that's eighty quid cheaper, but which will be worth less than that by the time we've fought our way down to the checkout and wiped the bloodstains off it.

But you know what really p1sses me off? It's all those clever-clever smart@rses who sit at home by their sodding computer screens and get all the late messages about how "eleven to midday is Happy Hour at Currys" or Game World. And by the time we get back from the combat zone with our broken limbs and noses, the clever-clever bastards have grabbed everything online, and it's being delivered tomorrow. In a van. I ask you..... :evil:

Still, it's been a nice day out, I suppose. I haven't punched anybody's lights out for at least a year, and I've got most of a cheap telly for the lounge. Lime green, it is. The missus says it won't matter as long as we keep the lights off. Happy days. See you at Spoons, then?

BJ


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