Black Friday madness turns us shoppers into puppets on strings
THE image was brutally effective. BLACK written in bold letters, FRIDAY written underneath and SALE in blood red, sandwiched in the middle, in desperate, tilted characters. On the screen below was an option to watch hourly deals, some good, some hardly worth pursuing. You had the option to refresh your ‘deals’ page to keep your eyes spinning waiting for the numbers to align just right so that you press the purchase or go to shopping basket button. There was even a counter for Christ sake!
As soon as mid-November arrives and the lights have been turned on for Christmas the panic and anxiety and mild psychosis kicks in like a drug and takes hold for millions of people around the world. Vouchers and offers come flooding in letterboxes from supermarkets and electrical goods suppliers and before you know it you become obsessed with not losing out on a bargain even if you don’t really need anything. On Friday I found myself in a waiting room and got sucked into the phenomenon, listlessly surfing through websites until I came to a mental cul de sac and forcefully stuck my smartphone back in my pocket. Like puppets on strings, puppets bathed in the eerie glow of screens, half the world went mad and the ones laughing all the way to the bank were sat in their offices with their feet up dreaming of yachts and summer homes. A recent survey in America found that 44 per cent of people admit that they get distracted at work on Black Friday. Americans are mad as evidenced by their recent choice of President, but we’re following in hot pursuit. Poor self image, the constant bombardment of eye popping online advertising campaigns and the ready availability of plastic money makes for a heady and dangerous cocktail, one which makes people spend, spend, spend.
In America, where Thanksgiving is the most important family day of the year, people who stuffed their face with a surfeit of food end up leaving family behind to go to the mall and shop. Friday has become Thursday see with stores opening at 5 p.m. Some people even end up in hospital. Then Cyber Monday was invented for electrical and computer goods shoppers and another name has been coined since.
The goalposts are constantly changed so you can spot a bargain on (Black) Monday and when you return to the website on Black Friday you find to your horror that the price has gone back up.
I suppose the ominous sounding name in and of itself is a giveaway that this day of all days of the year is not one to be trusted with your year’s savings. Getting people to think about buying goods through various evil machinations is damn good marketing and wonderfully macabre business. It’s like the hawker convincing you to buy something you don’t really want, but on a global scale. As someone who always leaves Christmas shopping to the last minute I tried not to allow myself to get caught up in the frenzy. I failed! Miserably! It’s all so tiring and ultimately a waste of time. I love my bargains, don’t get me wrong, and recently bought a pair of perfectly good second hand €200 shoes for €5 in a charity shop on a sunny Tuesday, but I’m beginning to fall out of love with the build up to Christmas, my favourite time of year, and that cannot be a good thing. So forget Black Friday, Cyber Monday and panic button Wednesday. There are sales in January afterall and in spring and in summer and in autumn. The stuff will stil be there waiting for you so why get hung up on things, even at a time when distractions from Trump & Co are most welcome!