Copy article

Black Friday 2023

ended 16. November 2023

Black Friday is fast approaching and Newspage has had quite a lot of success ridiculing this trashy American import in the past — but, more importantly, calling out the way it can direct consumer spend away from small indy retailers towards the high street and/or online giants of retail. As a retailer, what are your thoughts on Black Friday? Do you roll with it and offer your own Black Friday deals or do you steer well clear? Does it negatively impact your sales at a crucial time of the year, or do you find it helps to boost them? Any thoughts or anecdotes, send them across and we'll do our best to get them featured in the media next week. Below is a screengrab from the FT a couple of years ago that Newspage landed, i.e. don't hold back if Black Friday really grinds your gears.

6 responses from the Newspage community

Copy all

Star Quote
Copy

Heather Moore
Artist/Business Owner at The Peacock & The Printmaker
I tried doing Black Friday deals via Etsy a few years ago and it did bring some sales but I came to realise that it also brought customers who thought my artwork should be cheap.
Black Friday is all about bargains, although how much of a bargain you're actually getting I'm not sure. It just serves to show the enormous markup that is made by huge businesses that they can afford to slash their prices in the first place.
I pride myself on creating high-quality Lino print artwork that will stand the test of time. I'm not here to create disposable products for people to gift only for them to be useless in a week or bleach in the sun. I want people to buy my art and love it, enjoying it for the rest of their lives.
Black Friday seems to be fueling the have-it-now disposable shopping culture and it saddens me. Vivienne Westwood said "Buy less, choose well" and I'm with her on that.
Copy

Editor
Samuel Mather-Holgate
Independent Financial Adviser at Mather and Murray Financial
As if consumerism isn’t out of control already, increasing the effects of many things we hate like over production of plastics, climate change and poor labour conditions. Throw a made up, new celebratory day onto the fire and the result is a paradox of festive spending that we all know is rotten to the core. Stealing business away from smaller, local stores as people march on the Walmart style super stores to bag a deal on a large screen tv they don’t need. I’ll steal clear thanks.
Copy

Kundan Bhaduri
Property Developer and Portfolio Landlord at The Kushman Group
The American tradition of Black Friday is certainly worth the hype for property developers and commercial landlords. If you own commercial blocks, especially those in or near the high street, Black Friday can be a boon. Increased foot traffic and sales during this period will benefit businesses renting commercial space, potentially helping developers improve lease renewal rates or increase demand for retail spaces, which, let us be honest have struggled over the past year. With the rise of e-commerce, many businesses require additional warehousing space to handle the surge in online orders during events like Black Friday. Once again, for those who invest in industrial properties suitable for warehousing, you will find increased demand from small and medium sized e-commerce companies looking to expand their logistics capabilities.
Copy

John Lamerton
Small Business Author at Big Ideas... for Small Businesses
I see Black Friday as nothing more than a mosh pit with prizes. I implore small business owners not to participate - as they'll never be able to compete with the pricing and marketing power of the big boys.
Copy

Jess Magill
Co-founder at Powderkeg Brewery
Black Friday doesn't sit well with us- it runs counter to so many of our values. We run a family-owned microbrewery and we pride ourselves on quality, integrity and personal relationships. So last year we did 'Green Friday' - where we sold goods for the same price but donated a portion to a local environmental charity. It didn't boost sales by a huge amount but it had a feel-good factor that is totally worth it. We'll do the same thing again this year, because a frenzy of consumerism is just not our style.
Copy

Austyn Johnson
Founder at Mortgages For Actors
Black Friday deals? - no.
Next thing you know, we will be celebrating xmas in October! oh wait a minute...