Black Friday

Growing up and living in Canada, we never had Black Friday until a few years ago. See, we celebrate our Thanksgiving in October, and it’s a Monday so very different from the United States. It was different having this big sale day here because it happened at the end of a normal week for us. Black Friday now seems to be a bigger event here in Canada than Boxing Day is.

Black Friday sales have really changed in the last little while and I have noticed that instead of it being one day it is now more like a week or two of sales. Maybe part of that has to do with retailers trying to get back sales and customers that they lost during the Pandemic, but I am not sure. What I have noticed is there are a lot of stores with sales that started Monday and then there are stores where their Black Friday sales are going to start on the Friday.

Daily Sales Emails:

• If you subscribe to a newsletter or a store, you have probably been receiving a lot of emails in your inbox over the last week or two. I know that I have been getting daily emails from some stores. Some of these stores are having what they call daily sales, so if you want that good deal, you must either order online from the store every day and go to the store every day to get the item that is on sale. Not all stores are right next door to where I live, and also not everyone has the time to do all of those trips. There was one store, and they had 12 days of sales, and what they did was you could add the item to your cart that day and didn’t have to check out until the 12 days were over. I think that is a wonderful idea.

Interesting sales:

• One of the interesting things that I have noticed about some of these sales is how they change during the week or two of Black Friday sales.  Here is an example of just one store and the sales they have offered.
• Buy 1 item get 1 item 50% off
• Next sale: Buy 2 items, get 1 item free
• Next sale: Buy 3 items, get 3 items free
• Overlapping sale: Spend $40 on items not including the Buy 3, get 3, and then you can purchase for an addition $40 a gift valued at $127 which are items they have selected and put together as one package.
• Now I wonder what the retailer is really thinking because a lot of people would have purchased either during the first two sales and been upset then the next sale dropped. I know I was frustrated when I realized that now there is a buy 3, get 3 free.
• Some people will go back to the store during this last sale to buy even more things, but for me, it was I got what I needed, and I am not going back just to buy more items that I don’t need right now.

Black Friday here in Canada has become an event that can last for one week or more, and the sales and emails that everyone is getting is starting to be a little overwhelming. Sure, it would be nice to have a bunch of one day sales, but I would rather you just put the items on sale for a week and let me go when I can go and get all the items at once. Of course, there are going to be people that like the challenge of getting a good bargain each day, but for most of us we don’t have the time necessary to do that also why should I pay for shipping each day when I could bundle a bunch of items and only pay shipping once.

Yes, Black Friday is a day, or it was a day when people stood in line for hours to get the best deals as soon as the store opened, but now it seems to be rolling the dice and see which day you purchase the item and hope you get the best deal. It’s now time for me to go and see how many more sales emails I have received just while writing this.