Black Friday coming soon to the UK. WHAT THE F***!! WHY?!?!

[Parasondox]

Hello Escapist

Okay I am just going to say it straight away and just stop this and stop this right now. The USA has some great idea to liven things up and make the dull things more fun but we don't have to copy every idea. In the past few years it has been proms making a big appearance for secondary school leavers and now Black Friday. That's right several stores in the UK are trying to promote more "Black Friday" deals just to get shoppers in the door. Don't get me wrong I don't mind shops doing promotions but not copy an idea from the USA that has some extreme press. Some good but many just bad with wild shoppers and insane scenarios.

Maybe I am just being grumpy like those from Grumpy Old Men (I miss that show) but what do you think about this and do we in the UK need "Black Friday" and what do those from across the pond think of adapting this idea.

Comment below and thank you.

 

[tippy2k2]

You're welcome

-Sincerely,
'Merica

Honestly, yeah the crowds suck but that whole "EVERY DIES! SHOOTOUTS AND TRAMPLINGS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!" is so stupidly overblown that I'm shocked that anyone still believes it. I've gone to a few events and I have yet to even see someone get hurt, let alone get killed like the news programs promised.

Ultimately, the beautiful part about it is that if you don't want to participate, you don't have to. That's what bugs me about people who complain about it all the time; don't want to deal with it, don't go. Bam! I just solved your problem. You're welcome imaginary straw-man I've built!

 

[Foolery]

We have it here in Canada now as well. I'm not bothered by it. No one is holding a gun to my head, making me go out and shop. Don't like it? Don't go.

 

[JoJo]

Ultimately it's coming to the UK because shops want more of this:

Spoiler

As Tippy pointed out though, I don't see the problem considering none of us are obliged to go out to the shops on this particular day.

 

[Parasondox]

Ultimately it's coming to the UK because shops want more of this:

Spoiler

As Tippy pointed out though, I don't see the problem considering none of us are obliged to go out to the shops on this particular day.

We have it here in Canada now as well. I'm not bothered by it. No one is holding a gun to my head, making me go out and shop. Don't like it? Don't go.

What about for those who work in retail and those stores?

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Ultimately it's coming to the UK because shops want more of this:

Spoiler

As Tippy pointed out though, I don't see the problem considering none of us are obliged to go out to the shops on this particular day.

We have it here in Canada now as well. I'm not bothered by it. No one is holding a gun to my head, making me go out and shop. Don't like it? Don't go.

What about for those who work in retail and those stores?

Hey it's not like you guys have a family holiday the day before that is suppose to be about family and friends that is slowly being destroyed by it.

 

[Foolery]

What about for those who work in retail and those stores?

Then they have my sympathies, and I'd love to buy them a beer. I've worked retail before, it sucks. Especially around the holidays.

 

[tippy2k2]

snip

I know I wasn't quoted here but I'm stepping into it anyway because 'merica!

I had a long, ranty post on ze Facebooks about this exact thing when people kept flooding my freaking front page with "BOYCOTT BLACK FRIDAY!" stuff because of the fact that many retailers have their people work on Thanksgiving (speaking of which, the fact that it's with Thanksgiving is the primary issue people have with BF; an issue that you would not have in the UK (to the best of my knowledge, Thanksgiving is almost exclusively a US holiday)...

(This is word for word on my Facebook wall):

I'll go ahead and ask the question that everyone seems to ignore when they complain about Black Friday shopping...

Why is it that the movie theater employee doesn't get sympathy for working on Thanksgiving?

Why is it that the restaurant industry not get any sympathy for working on Thanksgiving?

Hotel workers and the travel industry? Gas station attendant? Airline workers? Nope.

But that poor Wal-Mart employee. For whatever reason, retail seems to be the only bad guy on Black Friday...

EDIT: Not to pile on [name removed to protect the innocent] (I love you!) but I think after writing my long ass complaining post, I figured out why people have a problem with retail black Friday and not all those other industries:

Retail Black Friday is inconvenient TO us; the other industries are convenient FOR us. THAT's why I always have such a problem with these kind of articles; they're complaining like they're fighting for the little guy but they're fighting because they don't want to stand in line and fight other shoppers. It's a pain in the ass for them but that doesn't sound as moral crusadey so instead, they complain about how "evil" retail is by doing this. That way they can complain about something they hate to do while looking like they're the hero

With that, after piling on and presumably making my friend cry, I also realized that there are a lot of workers that like to work then because you get paid extra for it (1.5 times legally and supposedly some places pay even more).

 

[Doclector]

You're welcome

-Sincerely,
'Merica

Honestly, yeah the crowds suck but that whole "EVERY DIES! SHOOTOUTS AND TRAMPLINGS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!" is so stupidly overblown that I'm shocked that anyone still believes it. I've gone to a few events and I have yet to even see someone get hurt, let alone get killed like the news programs promised.

Ultimately, the beautiful part about it is that if you don't want to participate, you don't have to. That's what bugs me about people who complain about it all the time; don't want to deal with it, don't go. Bam! I just solved your problem. You're welcome imaginary straw-man I've built!

True, but I hate crowds as it is, and fact is, I have a life...kind of. I don't get much of a choice about whether or not I can lock myself away for the duration of the event. I've already tried that with valentines day...

Still, it does bother me that we keep copying stuff from america. Some of it is worth copying, but can't we forge our own modern identity?

 

[EeveeElectro]

You're welcome

-Sincerely,
'Merica

Honestly, yeah the crowds suck but that whole "EVERY DIES! SHOOTOUTS AND TRAMPLINGS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!" is so stupidly overblown that I'm shocked that anyone still believes it. I've gone to a few events and I have yet to even see someone get hurt, let alone get killed like the news programs promised.

Ultimately, the beautiful part about it is that if you don't want to participate, you don't have to. That's what bugs me about people who complain about it all the time; don't want to deal with it, don't go. Bam! I just solved your problem. You're welcome imaginary straw-man I've built!

No, you don't have to shop and I wouldn't. (maybe only online...!)

However, if you're a normal, functioning member of society and you have a life or a job to go to, then people getting in your way, blocking the streets, and pushing you out the way is going to piss anyone off.
Case in point, me and the boyfriend went to Manchester before I had to go home. On the way there, we were packed in the train like sardines and it wasn't even peak times because people were desperate to go to the city and grab a sale.

It's sad how rabid, rude and angry people can act. We were getting shoved, pushed and walked into.
(We thought bugger that and went to the German Market instead)

Then I work right opposite the Asda at a Greggs so my work was packed which I'm not complaining about but we're seriously understaffed (obviously no one else's fault but the damn area managers) so that was just extra stupid stress.

It's easy saying "Well don't go out, no one is forcing you" but most people who DON'T want to shop still get the brunt of it.
Don't mean to sound like I'm having a go, just had to point it out after the shit day I've had... it's hard for anyone to avoid Black Friday... ;_;

OT: It's already started, as stated above. Apparently one woman got trampled on and sent to hospital, dunno if that's true though.

 

[tippy2k2]

However, if you're a normal, functioning member of society and you have a life or a job to go to, then people getting in your way, blocking the streets, and pushing you out the way is going to piss anyone off.

Maybe that's an infrastructure thing since I just went this morning to Target (large retail chain) and had absolutely no problems getting in, out, or anything in-between. Roads were perfectly fine here unless you went into the parking lot of a store last night...then you got to go to war.

I suppose here (in Minnesota at least), you have to drive to get anywhere useful. To the best of my knowledge, things are a lot more...compact for lack of a better word in Europe so events that don't even blip on my radar here could cause a bunch of problems in smaller areas. If I want to avoid all Black Friday events, I very easily could due to our infrastructure but that might not be the case for you guys...

 

[DugMachine]

Nobody needs a Black Friday. The masses of people that go out to shop is disgusting. I understand the deals are crazy but the lengths people are willing to go to just to save a few bucks really rubs me the wrong way. I apologize on behalf of America for bringing this awful day upon you.

And my heart goes out to the retail workers that have to work during Black Friday and the Holidays in general. I've been there.. never again.

 

[EeveeElectro]

However, if you're a normal, functioning member of society and you have a life or a job to go to, then people getting in your way, blocking the streets, and pushing you out the way is going to piss anyone off.

Maybe that's an infrastructure thing since I just went this morning to Target (large retail chain) and had absolutely no problems getting in, out, or anything in-between. Roads were perfectly fine here unless you went into the parking lot of a store last night...then you got to go to war.

I suppose here (in Minnesota at least), you have to drive to get anywhere useful. To the best of my knowledge, things are a lot more...compact for lack of a better word in Europe so events that don't even blip on my radar here could cause a bunch of problems in smaller areas. If I want to avoid all Black Friday events, I very easily could due to our infrastructure but that might not be the case for you guys...

The roads didn't look bad, actually. If I drove, I would have been right as rain. Public transport was a nightmare which I have no choice to use (Damn train was cancelled so I got to work late as well)
For 11-2pm on a Friday, it seemed hectic. Either people took the day off, or finished early.

That's odd, I assumed Target would be in on Black Friday too. I'm not sure who else was doing it, but apparently people were queuing up at Asda at 6:30am when it opens at 8:00am.

The problem is, people over here are bloody vultures. You possibly remember the riots of a couple of years ago which shows how bad we can get over a few free stuff.
It's the same when there's sales on. We have boxing day sales which is pretty much the same as BF, and even my work is packed, despite us not doing any sales.

We're tiny, so we're all packed in together so yeah that's possible. The paths don't hold more than two people usually but big crowds of people think they can squeeze past.
Brits aren't polite ;_;

 

[Artina89]

The problem I have with Black Friday is that thanks to the streets and the roads being crowded even more so than usual, it took me two and a half hours to get home from work. There wasn't any way that I could avoid it.

 

[Parasondox]

However, if you're a normal, functioning member of society and you have a life or a job to go to, then people getting in your way, blocking the streets, and pushing you out the way is going to piss anyone off.

Maybe that's an infrastructure thing since I just went this morning to Target (large retail chain) and had absolutely no problems getting in, out, or anything in-between. Roads were perfectly fine here unless you went into the parking lot of a store last night...then you got to go to war.

I suppose here (in Minnesota at least), you have to drive to get anywhere useful. To the best of my knowledge, things are a lot more...compact for lack of a better word in Europe so events that don't even blip on my radar here could cause a bunch of problems in smaller areas. If I want to avoid all Black Friday events, I very easily could due to our infrastructure but that might not be the case for you guys...

The roads didn't look bad, actually. If I drove, I would have been right as rain. Public transport was a nightmare which I have no choice to use (Damn train was cancelled so I got to work late as well)
For 11-2pm on a Friday, it seemed hectic. Either people took the day off, or finished early.

That's odd, I assumed Target would be in on Black Friday too. I'm not sure who else was doing it, but apparently people were queuing up at Asda at 6:30am when it opens at 8:00am.

The problem is, people over here are bloody vultures. You possibly remember the riots of a couple of years ago which shows how bad we can get over a few free stuff.
It's the same when there's sales on. We have boxing day sales which is pretty much the same as BF, and even my work is packed, despite us not doing any sales.

We're tiny, so we're all packed in together so yeah that's possible. The paths don't hold more than two people usually but big crowds of people think they can squeeze past.
Brits aren't polite ;_;

I think its worse when you have certain mothers with prams using it as a weapon to push you out of the way and not even say excuse me or sorry. I live in East London and when Westfield as Stratford City opened up, holy crap was it just traffic and chaos and I just wanted to get to work on the other side of the shopping centre. Not fun.

 

[The White Hunter]

Brits aren't polite ;_;

I went to Asda yesterday to buy some booze and it was full of sociopaths running around after cheap (shite) TV's.

A woman crashed into me with her trolley.

Then fled when I didn't respond outside of glaring.

Cowardly milkdrinking scavengers.

 

[OneCatch]

I think its worse when you have certain mothers with prams using it as a weapon to push you out of the way and not even say excuse me or sorry. I live in East London and when Westfield as Stratford City opened up, holy crap was it just traffic and chaos and I just wanted to get to work on the other side of the shopping centre. Not fun.

Carry an open drink (or a really messy foodstuff) around, and then when a pram bumps into you 'accidentally' spill it all over the kid.
Problem fucking solved, and it's ostensibly the parent's fault.

I am definitely not misanthropic...

--
OT, it's crass and stupid, bot no more crass and stupid than any other commercialised bollocks. I just didn't go shopping.

 

[Battenberg]

Honestly I'm not sure what the issue is here, no one's forcing you to buy anything and it's a good oppurtunity to both give our economy a small boost once a year and for customers to get some good value for money. The only thing I don't like is the mob mentality that seems to have made it over with black friday where it's ok to act like an irresponsible greedy jerk, potentially injuring others for these offers. But like I said it's easily avoided by simply not participating or sticking to online shopping (e.g. Amazon have had some decent Black Friday deals here this year).

 

[chozo_hybrid]

You're welcome

-Sincerely,
'Merica

Honestly, yeah the crowds suck but that whole "EVERY DIES! SHOOTOUTS AND TRAMPLINGS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!" is so stupidly overblown that I'm shocked that anyone still believes it. I've gone to a few events and I have yet to even see someone get hurt, let alone get killed like the news programs promised.

A quick search yielded this story from a few years back, about a Wal-Mart employee who was trampled and killed by people stampeding into a store. http://m.nydailynews.com/1.334059

This video shows how crazy it can get, even to the point where the cords break the doors open to get inside just to buy things.


It truly disgusts me. I work in retail, and most people are nice enough, but the bad ones, they make your day pretty crap. If I was in that situation, I would have a hard time being nice to any of them the way they are acting in that video. Time and a half pay on retail wages don't make up for a lot of that kind of stuff.

Is it exaggerated by people as to how bad it gets? Of course. But that fact that at least one person has died due to the greed of others wanting a few bucks off something materialistic, is at least one person too many.[/quote]

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

But with Black Friday presumably you're getting a Cyber Monday as well, no? If you don't wanna go shopping just wait at home and buy all your shit in online stores at nearly as ridiculous discounts.

Being an exchange student in the US i participate in both. Thanksgiving is a good time to be a gamer actually.