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Black Friday

Journalist: Grace Gausden, i newspaper

ended 25. November 2022

I am looking to put a piece together about Black Friday. How much does it actually make companies taking part? How much profit do they make? Is it a good time for them to offload winter stock or is it genuine deals? 
What are the criticisms of the event but is it actually a good time to get deals? 

4 responses from the Newspage community

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Jess Magill
Co-founder at Powderkeg Brewery
This November we’re turning our backs on the excessive consumption of Black Friday to try and do something more positive, which we're calling #GreenFriday. We’re donating 20% from every sale on our website during the weekend to the Devon Environment Foundation to support environmental regeneration in Devon. As a small independent brewery business, much of our trade is done in the local area and so it’s very important to us that we put as much back into the place where we live as we can. The frenzied consumption of Black Friday has never sat well with us, so this year we wanted to see if we can use the platform to make a positive impact on our local environment. Even if we can just raise awareness of DEF and a little bit of money to help fund their projects, to us that feels so much more positive than adding to the frenzy of consumerism. And if people feel good just for buying beer, then that's great too.
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Ruth Bradford
Owner/founder/creator at The Little Black & White Book Project
Black Friday is a funny old time for small business. If you join in, you're often seen as the black sheep of the community, somehow showing solidarity to big corporate money giants. In my opinion, the reality is though, that you're a fool if you don't join in in some way or another. It's one of the biggest shopping events of the year when people are all over the internet spending their cash. As a small business I want a piece of that. Sure, I can't compete on discount, but I am offering free products as an incentive to shop with me. But most importantly I am part of the conversation, I am noticeable because I've made a fuss about it, I've changed my homepage, posted on social media and sent emails. Whether it makes me a profit or boost sales, it's yet to be seen but in such a tough market you have to use all of the tools you can to attract customers to your store. Granted it doesn't work for every business but there's always a clever spin you can put on a seasonal event to make it relevant to your values. It's just good business sense. And the worst thing you can do is lament people for looking for Black Friday deals, as no one likes to be told - or told off - about how to spend their money.
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Michael Oszmann
Founder & CEO at Buy Britain
It has been shown that the vast majority of Black Friday deals are not really deals at all — 98% according to Which?. It is also a time when the largest businesses greatly ramp up their marketing activity to lure in consumers to these so-called deals. For small businesses making products in the UK, that type of marketing, on that scale, is very difficult to compete with. So from our perspective the main beneficiaries of Black Friday are companies like Amazon. Not UK consumers, not small independent businesses and not the local economies they operate in.
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Natalie Ormond
Owner at Smallkind
Black Friday presents a conflict for small brands. It's tempting to boycott the whole thing but we also know that big retailers will be shouting loud about discounts and many consumers will buy into it, especially this year. A boost in sales would be very welcome but I can't slash prices like Amazon because we stock ethical and responsible brands so the profit margins don't compare. I understand why small businesses do join in but I know it would give me a sinking stomach feeling. Black Friday is essentially promoting over consumption and profit at all costs and it doesn't feel good. At Smallkind we use Black Friday to support our charity partner, Zarach, by donating 10% of all orders over the BF weekend. This year I've also launched a 'buy a bar of soap' fundraiser so that customers can donate the cost price of a bar of natural soap and we'll donate one to the hygiene bank. We'll also be participating in #colourfriday created by by Holly Tucker to celebrate independent businesses. We've teamed up with ten Indie brands and will have a couple of special offers but no huge discounts. This feels like a happy medium so that we can reward our loyal customers, support a local charity and avoid that 'Black Friday feeling'.