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Bleak Friday

Head Rambles Posted on by

Thank fuck that’s over!

For the last couple of weeks I have been inundated with mails rabbiting on about Black Friday Sales [all of which were promptly deleted without a second thought].  I even had one frantically offering me huge Black Friday reductions in sun-glasses for fucks sake.  Why in the name of all that’s holy would I want to buy sun-glasses in November?  The television has been full of the crap too.  Order your Black Friday sitting room suite and have it delivered by Christmas!  Fuck off!

Black Friday is one of those nasty little gimmicks dreamt up by American retailers and unfortunately, like a lot of their other tatty crap, it has infected retailers this side of the pond too.  It is nothing more than a cynical attempt to make uus part with our money.  It is supposedly named on the premise that this is the day when the shops are black with people, and if there is one thing I detest it’s crowded shops.

I have a very simple philosophy when it comes to shopping.  If I need something I will go out and buy it.  Once I have decided to buy, I may do a little shufty around the Interweb to find the best price in the locality but that is it.  If I can’t find somewhere locally I will order on line, because I frankly hate shopping.  If I see an advertisement I will automatically assume that the seller is trying to rid himself of the product and will ignore the advertisement.  I decide what I will buy and not the seller.

I presume the streets of our cities are now packed with sheeple frantically buying stuff that they don’t need, and probably can’t afford, simply because they have been conned into the whole artificial frenzy.  They don’t have my sympathy as they frankly deserve to be ripped off.  They have been told they want something so off they go meekly to buy it.

Will you Americans please keep your crap to yourselves?

 

Comments

Bleak Friday — 26 Comments

  1. Heartily endorse your comments G.D.

    I would also apply this to Halloween ,’happy non specific holidays’ ,spring break and all corruptions of traditional festivities .

    If the Murkins wish to redefine celebrations that’s their right but why should we follow their example ?

    • Next thing we’ll be dragged into Independence Day and Thanksgiving!  At least we managed to get ’em back with Paddy’s Day [which they insist on calling Patty’s Day].

  3. Thanks for clearing that up for me GD. I’ve always known Friday the 13th as Black Friday. I thought I’d moved into a parallel dimension or something. I was accidentally exposed to morning TV here in Aus the other day and the muppets on screen (apologies to the real muppets) were banging on about Black Friday and I looked at the calendar and it was the 24th so how the fuck can this Friday be the 13th? Now I know, nothing to worry about, it’s just crap.

    • Just another hyped up American retail trickery to herd the Lemmings to the slaughterhouse.  They reckon it’s the busiest day of the year for shopping so they just want to make it busier.  Ker ching!

  4. “I presume the streets of our cities are now packed with sheeple frantically buying stuff that they don’t need, and probably can’t afford,”

    Indeed: http://clearreturns.com/portfolio-item/returned-goods-black-friday/

    “UK shoppers will spend £5 billion in a four-day internet shopping frenzy from Black Friday to Cyber Monday.

    However, according to predictions by innovative retail data intelligence specialists, Clear Returns, £1 billion of these products purchased online will be returned by shoppers“

    • They should be forced to keep them.  If they were stupid enough to buy things they don’t need then they should suffer the consequences.

  6. This morning Dearly Beloved and I took a bus into the city centre (pointless driving in, because by the time you find a parking spot all the shops are closed and everyone has gone home, and the bus only takes 10 minutes) with a view to tracking down the Patras branch of Marks & Spencer to see if they had any of their most excellent Christmas puds. I have a weakness for Christmas pudding, and it’s only a once a year indulgence,

    Anyway, while wandering round the shops, my wife asked me what all this ‘Black Friday’ stuff was (yes, it’s even infected Greece).

    “Wouldn’t have a fucking clue” was my reply, although I do know it’s a day of supposed discounts. So thanks for enlightening me, GD. I did tell her that we never had any bloody Black Fridays when I was younger.

    And yes, we did find M&S, and Oh Joy, they did have some puds on a shelf in a small Christmas section selling a few traditional British seasonal things, like shortbread and stuff. So mission successful. Now all I have to do is to make a temporary housing for the oven so we can cook the goose I have in the freezer, since I haven’t built the kitchen yet.

    Ah, the joys of moving to a house in need of renovation.

    • ‘Tis a long way to the nearest M&S fro here so have never shopped there, but I confess their advertising is one of the minority [of one] that makes my mouth water.  I’m getting hungry now – Christmas pudding with home made brandy butter [one of the very rare occasions where I like alcohol in my cooking!].

  7. A new Walmart super store finally arrived in my area after a 10 year wait and I’m not complaining a bit (although a very few others are–usually the ones who don’t live here in the NorthEast Kingdom of Vermont). We’re rather isolated up here by the Canadian border so what local stores we have felt free to charge the maximum they could get away with so Walmart’s arrival has done nothing but good for the area.

    But I’ve really enjoyed not going to any Black Friday sales–anywhere (especially Walmart). Instead, we’re spending a nice quiet day home in front of the wood stove. And ironically enough, of all the Black Friday emails I’ve received over the past few weeks, not one of them was from Walmart.

    Glad I took the time not to go.

      • You know, I’ve always looked around for people dressed like that at the Walmart stores we had to patronize before we got our own up here but to no avail. Just folks dressed up like they lived in Northern New England–which they did. I guess I’d have to visit a Walmart down below the Mason-Dixon line, California or perhaps the mid-west to find that sort of clientele?

          • Probably get (accidently) run over before he/she/it ever made it to his/her/it’s vehicle if he/she/it tried that around these parts.

            I don’t know whether to compliment you on the above image (and the fact that you actually found it lurking in a Google Image search) or just ignore it altogether. Sheesh!

  8. Black Friday is one of those nasty little gimmicks dreamt up by American retailers

    This morning, a news item said ASDA were not doing Black Friday. Thank F for that, methought, as I had to go to ASDA.

    • There was a bunch of retailers here on the news this evening, and they didn’t sound too happy with the whole concept.  They would prefer people to just keep spending for the next four weeks!

  9. now you feel the pain of all Canadians being so damn close to the country, like an annoying loud downstairs neighbour.

  10. Oh fuck you europeans and especially you freakin’ canucks.  Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving.  Since you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving you have no black Friday!  If your retailers want to rip us off and use that term don’t blame me.  I stayed home today and watched Star Trek all day.

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