Black Friday

I never bother with it notgran. It all seems a load of rubbish to me...an attempt to get people to buy things because they are cheap, not because they have a need for them.

I went shopping on Friday completely unaware it was BF. I did get some good discounts of 25% on a few things I'd have bought anyway. Leaving the shopping area was another story. I'd arrived early. It took me close to 30 minutes to exit the car park, so badly queued was the traffic with BF shoppers at that time.

Yes, I wanted a couple of things from Lakeland and they were much reduced - almost half price - yesterday. They were genuine reductions as I’d had my eye on them for a while. Ditto The White Company with 20% off and free p&p and Landsend 50% off.

notgran

Black Friday - yet another American import. But commerce doesn't miss a trick when it's to be turned.

Your experience confirms my doubts. I'm sure there are genuine bargains to be had, and good on the canny grans who got them.

After watching a couple of videos of customers fighting each other over electronic items, shoving and pushing and sometimes falling over, snatching things from each other's shopping trolleys - and two people actually having a tug of war over a TV... I've decided to give it a miss and save even more money on BF by not purchasing anything at all.

... it's all too frenzied for me.

I got 25% off a microscope for DGS1’s birthday. I also bought some much-needed socks from Nordic Socks at half-price, but didn’t feel they were such a great bargain when I had to pay £4.99 postage.

Dickens, my feeling is that there are sales through the year that equate to the BF sales I've seen. Often it's just 10% off. In my area anyway.

CafeAuLait

Dickens, my feeling is that there are sales through the year that equate to the BF sales I've seen. Often it's just 10% off. In my area anyway.

... that's also been my experience.

And retailers will, quite often, give you a discount simply because you ask for one!

Well you know what they say, a bargain is only a bargain if you want it in first place! Sales/reductions/Black Friday draw people in to buy stuff they weren’t actually looking for.

I don’t buy any Black Friday ‘deals’, it seems to go on for over a month and there’s nothing I really want.

I have bought some really stylish sheets I wanted
but that is about it!

Reading the replies. we all seem too savvy after years of experience, of not believing in great bargains. Martin Lewis has been encouraging us all for weeks to only buy what you really want and possibly anticipate it being in a Black Friday deal and research the price before BF. Then if it doesn't seem too great a deal, wait for the Christmas/New Year sales, when it probably will have a better reduction. Despite my OP saying I hadn't really gone for any BF Deals, I actually spotted this afternoon some garden wall art that I had nearly bought at the beginning of the year. I didn't because I thought it was too expensive. It's now been reduced by 75%. Only problem I shall have to hide it away so my OH doesn't see it until Spring when I will need him to put it on the fence.

I got the children's advent calendars which were about £8 cheaper than they had been last week so quite pleased I'd not purchased them at full price.

Apparently we spent almost 9 billion on Friday so it appears that this sale is rather popular

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59409507

I deliberately did allmy Christmas shopping well ahead of Black Friday so that I could avoid everything but the most basic food shopping in the week before and after it.

We booked 2 nights in a hotel at Peebles for next May. 40% off 2 night stays. Seems a reasonable price. Of course there may well be other deductions possible if booked nearer the time

As an American, I urge you all to run. Run as far away from this "holiday" as you can. Do not embrace it. Although I do encourage you all to check out American Thanksgiving if you have the chance. It is a wonderful holiday. But I am full of Thanksgiving leftovers right now and biased.

American companies create the frenzy by advertising huge deals and then only having one or two deals per store. This is what causes the mass chaos in store. Luckily the last few years has been better about this. Many stores start Black Friday sales on Nov 1st and have another huge go on Cyber Monday.

There is no deal worth getting if someone gets hurt in the process.

I wasn't aware of the Black Friday thing but I wanted to buy something special for my elder granddaughter's 18th birthday – not just giving her money. I chose a delicate silver bracelet with sparkly stones at the top and was absolutely delighted that there was a big Black Friday discount. I am having a cash flow crisis at the moment so I couldn't have afforded the full price. She was thrilled with the bracelet so we are all good.

No I avoid Black Friday, Cyber Monday, blue Tuesday pink Wednesday or turquoise Saturday
They are 99% con especially the big priced stuff
Yes there may be some bargains tucked in there but for the most part it just encourages people to buy what they don’t need.
As for the murderous greed in clips I ve seen other years as people fight for things I find that dreadful Perhaps there werent any this year
I haven’t heard of it happening this year it seemed more muted or maybe I missed the news

freedomfromthepast

As an American, I urge you all to run. Run as far away from this "holiday" as you can. Do not embrace it. Although I do encourage you all to check out American Thanksgiving if you have the chance. It is a wonderful holiday. But I am full of Thanksgiving leftovers right now and biased.

American companies create the frenzy by advertising huge deals and then only having one or two deals per store. This is what causes the mass chaos in store. Luckily the last few years has been better about this. Many stores start Black Friday sales on Nov 1st and have another huge go on Cyber Monday.

There is no deal worth getting if someone gets hurt in the process.

Yes, my son lives in America , as he married an American girl, and they say BF is pretty manic over there, They avoid all major shopping malls for a few days,

They have had their thanksgiving celebrations as well. 20 people, and the curious thing is that my son (who couldn’t toast a slice of bread when living with me lol, (apparently) cooks the lot.?

They love that, for an English twist, he makes Yorkshire Puddings, and uses Paxo stuffing for the turkey.

Glad you enjoyed yours. ?