Today is, apparently Black Friday: a concept unknown in the UK until five years ago, but now hyped mainly by big corporations who want to sell you stuff. According The Guardian newspaper:
President Roosevelt gave it a special day, police in Philadelphia nicknamed the resultant chaos – and Amazon and Asda exported it to the UK…
Black Friday takes place in the US the day after Thanksgiving. It involves retailers cutting the price of their goods to encourage households to get back into shops after the US public holiday and it kickstarts the Christmas shopping period.
To counter this, there also seems to be a campaign entitled Buy Nothing Friday. The idea is that you actively aim to avoid any purchases today.
Nothing special about today… so here’s a picture of Max
But for me today is going to be go about your business as usual Friday. We’ve arranged to meet some friends for lunch at a local cafe, so we’ll be there supporting a small business… but not because of some hype, just because we want to eat and socialise and because they do nice food. Then, we need to get stuff for the chickens, so we’ll probably pop into a local store to see if they’ve got it and if they have we’ll buy and if they haven’t we won’t. While we’re out we’ll probably buy some milk and vegetables, because once you’ve made a journey in the car, it’s good to get as much out of the trip as possible and the nice organic food shop is close to the place we’re having lunch. And then on the way back, Mr Snail will drop me off to go and donate blood, because today is the day when the vampires are in town…
And that will be our day. We will spend money, but not any more or less than we would have done anyway. We’ll buy things from small local businesses, as always, and we’ll just behave normally.
I can’t help feeling that this is the answer… ignore the hype and just get on with your life… as I say, nothing to see here…
The Snail of Happiness 
Kate
/ November 27, 2015I agree. I am writing today so I won’t be going anywhere. Although Black Friday has persuaded me not to go out at all. Not that I was anyway… Does that make sense?
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The Snail of Happiness
/ November 27, 2015Absolutely… just business as normal. although I suspect Lampeter (our destination) is not going to be over-run by hordes of rampaging shoppers!
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Kate
/ November 27, 2015Probably not… I wouldn’t try Aberystwyth though…
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quercuscommunity
/ November 27, 2015According to my wife Nottingham is rammed with grim-faced bargain hunters. I’m three miles from the nearest shop, which suits me.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ November 27, 2015I’m pretty sure that here in west Wales we’re relatively safe… if I don’t write tomorrow, you’ll know I was trampled by the crowds in Lampeter!!
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quercuscommunity
/ November 27, 2015At least it make an interesting obituary! Good luck with avoiding it!
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katechiconi
/ November 27, 2015It’s all a bit grim, isn’t it? I bought things today, but only what we needed; groceries, and some cardstock so I can start hand making the Dowager’s Christmas gift. Too much stuff in this world already, why would I want to burden myself with more…? Looking forward to a wrapping-free Christmas!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ November 27, 2015Our shopping ended up being more than milk and vegetables… I also bought some nuts and some butter! Fortunately our tiny local town seems to be in a different decade.
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nanacathy2
/ November 27, 2015Nor here!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ November 27, 2015Yay!
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Pat
/ November 27, 2015Sorry you’ve been inflicted with with this horrid tradition! My tradition is to stay home all weekend. There’s a lot of insanity out there. 🙂
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The Snail of Happiness
/ November 27, 2015Just back from my trip out… fortunately my backwater seems to have escaped the madness and we only had to dodge rain rather than crowds 🙂
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Kitty
/ November 27, 2015i’m not worried either way to be honest. Those that want to go and seek bargains in the crowds can do so but I can’t say I joined them, along with you all above. 😉 I’ve no idea whether the shops were full of people scrambling over each other down here in Hampshire. I’ve not heard the local news this evening…
Oh I did have to nip out for some milk after work. Couldn’t manage the thought of none for a breakfast cuppa tomorrow. 😉
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arlingwoman
/ November 27, 2015It’s actually quite controversial in the US with some stores pushing back and not opening. Not much of a shopper myself, I was in my garden most of the day, putting it to bed. Hate to see this spread elsewhere. Ugh. Glad you’re not participating!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ November 28, 2015Our small local towns had no evidence of it either … what a relief to live somewhere sane.
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arlingwoman
/ November 28, 2015Small shops can’t buy in to the idea that cutting prices will give them a greater bottom line, which is why they suffer when big stores come around. My day was very sane, since I just put the garden to bed…
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davidprosser
/ November 28, 2015I was at home all day though going out would have made no difference as this is a backwater too. In defence of Black Friday, it may be that many parents would get a discount on the ‘must have’ toy for their offspring for Christmas.but,I doubt the retailers would have been giving anything yesterday that they wouldn’t have been doing in their pre-Christmas sales anyway. Whatever happened to the January sales starting in January?
xxx Massive Hugs xxx
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The Snail of Happiness
/ November 28, 2015We were wondering just the same thing… sales always used to happen in the New Year. I have to confess that I hate sales – all those crowds ugh!
xxx hugs xxx
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insearchofitall
/ November 28, 2015Couldn’t agree more. I never venture out on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I sat in my pj’s and worked on a gift. A quiet day after the circus of Thanksgiving. There is nothing I want badly enough to join that kind of crazy for it.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ November 28, 2015Hope you enjoyed your gift-making
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