Showing posts with label Black Friday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black Friday. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

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.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Black Friday

Yes it seems that the idea of Black Friday has now moved up to Canada as well as in the United States. Through the last few days we have been emailed about pre-Black Friday sales, now it is the emails for Black Friday sales. The malls are also open early so that people can get the deals before everyone else.

Black Friday originally was something that was only in the United States but as a means of keeping people here in Canada the retailers decided it wold be a good idea for us to have some sales at the same time. What they really aren’t telling us is that the sales we are getting really aren’t that great but at least they are on sale, or at least this is my feelings.

One example of the sales that really isn’t a sale is for some yarn that is on sale in the United States but wait it isn’t on sale here in Canada at Michaels. So here is the comparison in the U.S. it is 2 for $10 and the normal price is around $7 be ball of yarn. Now here in Canada the regular price is $12 a ball and yes on Black Friday the price is $12. There have been a lot of other yarn sales that have been talked about through social media and all I can say is that even when something is on sale here it is still a lot more than down the states. Here is what I am thinking the price should be on this yarn for today here in Canada given that we do have an exchange rate to consider. So how about 2 for $13 for even just Black Friday to keep some people here in Canada instead of them running down to the States and going to Michaels, JoAnn’s and Hobby Lobby. There is the other comparison, they have three different craft stores and we have one.

Black Friday also means that a lot of the malls here in Canada open early to try and attract people to come do their shopping and see what the sales are. The malls are normally busy during the Christmas season and I have already seen it for this year as it started last week for us. I am very glad that we have been able to get most of our shopping already done so that we can avoid the malls as much as possible over the next month.

We decided that we wanted to try and go shopping today so went to one of the malls and the results were we drove into the mall parking lot, drove around the parking lot looking for a spot for a bit of time and then left. Yes, the malls around the city were all crazy and the decision to leave the mall without actually going shopping was probably the best thing we could have done. There are still going to be sales happening between now and Christmas and dealing with all the crowds today to save a few dollars wasn’t worth it.

Black Friday can be an interesting experience but fighting all the crowds may not be worth it. I know that we could have driven around and around looking for a spot but considering we weren’t looking for anything particular just walking around the mall wasn’t something we were going to do without a lot of frustration.

Is Black Friday really worth it? I am not sure if you aren’t going to buy something anyway, the sales that you see, may or may not help with the decision. There were things that we saw, at another store, were a good price but they weren’t something that we needed so we left the store without the deals that we saw.

Black Friday can be a good deal if you already wanted the item. The item needs to be something you need not just something that was a good deal.