‘Black Friday’.
Last week residents saw shops in Bromley gearing up for ‘Black Friday’, a relatively new term for an old concept – increasing sales in the crucial lead up to Christmas. One Facebook hoax claimed the term came from the passing on of slaves after Thanksgiving in America but the real term dates back to stock market crashes in the US in the late 1800s. Either way, it looks like Black Friday is here to stay with scenes of frantic shoppers grabbing goods in a frenzy that does little to convince us that Christmas has been hijacked by a consumerist demon egging us all on to spend, spend, spend.
So how did Bromley fare last week? Sales signs sprung up in our local shopping centre on Friday the 28th of November including Boots with ‘Free make overs at all beauty counters’, HMV with ‘Up to 80% off selected lines’, Gap – ‘70% off full price items’, Clarks, Superdry and many, many more. Tills seemed busy with some queues snaking around the shop.
But ‘Black Friday’ is an American tradition connected to Thanksgiving, not linked to Britain in any way and here in Bromley we certainly don’t celebrate Thanksgiving on any grand scale. So why ‘Black Friday’? And why now? A mild Autumn and slow sales could be one reason alongside shoppers becoming more savvy with discounts and internet shopping carving out a large slice of the pre Christmas sales cake. We can’t blame shops taking advantage of this fast-growing mind-set; the lead up to Christmas especially helps this latest craze.
Is Black Friday here to stay? There is no indication that this idea will go away any time soon especially with the mighty American firm Walmart owning the likes of Asda and shoppers cannot be blamed for seeking discounts in our local town centres such as Bromley. Indeed if we are to compete against the likes of Amazon and Ebay maybe this is one weapon our highstreets can use. However, we should not forget, in all this pre Christmas spending, that Bromley is 13th out of 31 London boroughs for high levels of poverty and homelessness. So while shopping for our loved ones is an activity we wouldn’t wish to stop, we should remember to add some tins to the food banks in our local supermarkets and to purchase ‘The big Issue’ whenever we get the chance.
Saffron Morterr-Laing, Bromley High School
