Do We Need a Black Friday...?

[ameerat42]

...ANYthing? If it is defined as the first Friday after the US Thanksgiving holiday, why do we
have to follow suit? - Cultural indiscriminants that we must be! - Just wndering.

[Geoff79]

You don’t like bargains?!

I have no idea who what why when and where the whole Black Friday thing is, but I do like cheap stuff so it’s ok by me.

Just wish I knew it was coming so I could have let my beer supplies run low and stock up on 20% off plus free shipping at BoozeBud!! I still got one great bargain but had spent too much on beer leading up to it to take full advantage.

[ameerat42]

Just "Sale" would do, not the associated hype. And bargains, what are they? I suspect they are:
"We ripped you off gooden proppa before, so here's a brief, slight reduction to make you think you're
winning. tee-hee!"

[Geoff79]

Just "Sale" would do, not the associated hype. And bargains, what are they? I suspect they are:
"We ripped you off gooden proppa before, so here's a brief, slight reduction. tee-hee!"

$45 for a case of Goose Island IPA was my crowning achievement. That’s a bargain!

But I do agree with you. Apart from the rare spot bargain like that it’s just slightly less expensive versions of too-expensive stuff. And I hate the whole following the US mentality too. ‘November Sale Bonanza’ appeals more to me than ‘Black Friday.’ Besides, in 2018 isn’t that just ridiculously racist anyway?

[Nick Cliff]

The margins on some items do not seem to be reduced with camera gear in Oz that much at this stage, may be better to wait and buy one thing well than two things badly twice.
Does not seem to affect the price of jousting sticks, oh well maybe next year

cheers Nick

[ameerat42]

Does not seem to affect the price of jousting sticks, oh well maybe next year

You're right! - They haven't been on special for (middle) ages

[Nick Cliff]

Jeez Am, a good day ruined
I was hoping to have a tilt at windmills better sell the horse then.

[mudman]

i think we are losing our identity by blindly/ dumbly aping american customs and, language and such
less and less do i hear words like g'day and mate. now it's more buddy, hey and hi
then there is halloween, base ball, basket ball and black friday
there is nothing wrong with all this, for Americans.
but for us it's?

[ameerat42]

...but for us it's?...

is the word, I think. Anyway, "have a nice day"

[Mary Anne]

Off Topic a little and if that is not bad enough, I dont watch TV much though while passing ours recently I seen a Alec Baldwin Ad.
Seems Mr Baldwin does not know what a Ute is Why !!!!! I bet lots of Aussies know what a Pick Up is
Mr Baldwin isn't that why the Google research engine was invented, You Are A Little Slow or should that be behind the times Mate

[ameerat42]

M A. You mean Alec Fuller? - On account of his being fuller himself

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry, that should be "hisself"

[MarkChap]

AM, I was only thinking about this over the last couple of days

Everybody gets up in arms about following the "American" tradition of Halloween
But
I don't see people getting hot under the collar about the "American" tradition of "Black Friday" and the sales/bargains/deals, both online and more and more in local bricks and mortar retailers

[ameerat42]

There's no accounting for... - just about everything, actually

[Mark L]

Black Friday makes me think of a bush fire disaster we should be commemorating.

[Ross the fiddler]

Black Friday makes me think of a bush fire disaster we should be commemorating.

That's what comes to mind first to me too & why are we celebrating it? Remembrance isn't normally done with material extravagance, however, there has been some tasty 15% off deals that was tempting especially with cash back bonuses (cash card etc), but I resisted.

[Glenda]

I too think we blindly follow American traditions. Well it's not really us - it's the retailers who foist them onto us for the sake of more sales. I know when I was young we never worried about Valentines Day, Halloween, etc. Now you visit the shops in October and they are decked out in Halloween things but, we've never had anyone trick or treating at our door. February it's roses and chocolates and November it's Black Friday sales everywhere. I did hear one news report say they expect the Black Friday sales to eclipse the Boxing Day sales shortly - maybe because it comes before Christmas.

Nowadays it seems there are almost constant sales whereas years ago they seemed to occur only once or twice a year. I remember my father telling me about a business that was having a closing down sale which was so successful they kept operating for another 5 years.

[ameerat42]

Agree..., agree..., agree...

...we've never had anyone trick or treating at our door...

Oh, how lucky! They used to come around up to a couple of years ago, even though we nevva used to put
the silly balloons out to show it was welcome.

Agree..., agree...

[Geoff79]

I’ve hated the increase of interest in Halloween over the last few years because I always saw it as some stupid American thing too. We always made a point to go out for dinner on Halloween night to avoid the silliness. Or just pretended we weren’t home if they started too early.

Anyway, this year, early evening on Halloween, my kids asked to go trick or treating (stupid daycare!! ) and I found myself zipping around town near and after 6pm trying to find some cheap last minute costumes at our local Woolies, Coles, Kmart it whatever was open. All completely sold out. Nothing. Not even some devil horns or something. Stupid day.

The kids weren’t too disappointed as a lovely staff member at Woolies let them pick some lollies from a bucket there, even though we didn’t buy anything, so that was nice. But sadly for them, no trick or treating happened. Though the time we got back home they were more or less asleep anyway.

Anyway, moral of the story is next year I’ll be buying costumes early and participating... well, via the kids. Never, never ever thought I’d see that day. Gasp.

[jim]

“Black Friday” and the rest are just marketing exercises—any excuse to promote a shopping frenzy. You’d think it would work just as well for Australian retailers as for Americans but its main effect for me is a vast increase in spam email from Adorama and the like. Nothing from Ted’s. Im grateful for that but wonder how many sales Ted’s are missing out on.

Halloween isn’t American but European. The American take on it is pretty seductive though.

[Ross the fiddler]

“Black Friday” and the rest are just marketing exercises—any excuse to promote a shopping frenzy. You’d think it would work just as well for Australian retailers as for Americans but its main effect for me is a vast increase in spam email from Adorama and the like. Nothing from Ted’s. Im grateful for that but wonder how many sales Ted’s are missing out on.

Halloween isn’t American but European. The American take on it is pretty seductive though.

You just have to buy or create an account with DigiDirect & DCW & others & then you'll get all their advertising emails too.