Hit the brakes, fasten your seatbelt and brace yourself as the world is getting ready for one bumpy ride. As the time to Black Friday accelerates, just about everyone is buckling up for a day of crazy savings and even crazier behaviour.
Store windows are smothered with “SALE” and “up to 75% off” stickers and spam-emails are streaming in. During the year there are only a few important things you need to remember. This is your birthday, your anniversary, your mother-in-law’s birthday and most important, when Black Friday is! After a year of intense inflation, especially with petrol prices increasing by the minute, South Africa is on the look-out to save every last penny, so 23 November could barely come soon enough.
The name “Black Friday” was given by Philadelphia cops who were frustrated with the traffic caused by the mass of shoppers fleeing to the stores the day before Thanksgiving, a national holiday in the US. Because of the amount of people that went to the store it caused unpleasant and dark circumstances to shop under, therefore they named the day “Black Friday”. After many years the negative connotation behind the day has faded as people now see it as a day of opportunity.
Black Friday is the one day in the year where the impossible seems possible and where a rand actually has some value.
Citizens are waking up before dawn to be at the store when it opens. Even granny is catching the early pensioner breakfast to build up her energy for a day of shopping. Although this shopping frenzy is still relatively new in South Africa, retailers are catching on to the trend and the deals this year are marketed as “bigger and better”.
If you want to thrive this Black Friday, don’t sleep on the deals, but also don’t make any rushed decision as you will end up walking out with nothing that you came for. A big DO this year is online shopping. From local markets, national fashion retailers to global appliances stores, they all have websites or apps where you can splurge on from the comfort of your own home.
Online shopping offers amazing deals without having to knock someone out of the way with your elbow for the last, most desired item. Clothing retailers are the real gold mines, seeing that they have to get rid of their old stock before the December rush, most online sites have created “Cyber-Monday” so that the online sale may continue.
In order for you to stay updated on all the Black Friday madness you need to sign up for website newsletters. Plus first time account-users receive a discount when they spend a certain amount, which means your Friday just got blacker!
Many ask if you really save on Black Friday or do you end up spending money you never had? It all depends, will you get 75% off on the same items a week before Black Friday? Don’t go after the highest discount though, but rather the highest value for your money and you’ll end up a winner in the savings department this Black Friday.
