Black Friday Bonanza
FESTIVE SEASON SHOPPING GOT OFF TO A FLYING START WITH BLACK FRIDAY IN SLIGO OFFERING BARGAINS GALORE
IT is the annual retail shopping bonanza that sends shoppers in a flurry, hoping to get their hands on all the best bargains!
Black Friday is regarded as the official opening of the Christmas shopping season and in a short few years in Ireland it has snowballed into one of the nation’s biggest sales.
Forget the January sales, this year it was all about Black Friday.
A tradition more exclusive to the US, but in more recent years Irish retailers have caught on to the tradition.
No longer just a one day event, some business and online shops had sales lasting all weekend right.
EJ’s Menswear owner, Eamon Cunningham had up to 24 percent off all stock: “People are looking for a bargain and they’re getting it here. We opened at Midnight Thursday for 24 hours and because it was such a huge success we kept it going all weekend. The frost didn’t keep people away and a lot more people are shopping local because of the bad roads.”
Argos will run their event for a consecutive 13 days offering bargains of 10- 50 percent off certain products.
The online rush for bargains kicked off on Thursday evening for some retail outlets, while others only adhered to the Friday.
Retailers around town offered significant discounts on products for the annual spending spree while Shoppers flooded the streets of Sligo to see what reduced items they could get their hands on.
Toher’s pharmacy had prepared well in advance with pre- wrapped gifts to save time for both shoppers and staff on the ‘ very busy’ day.
Manager at Jodis Boutique, Gemma Lavin explained she was nervous about the black Friday madness: “It’s been a great day and it has been so busy there is lots of buzz around which is great to see for Sligo. It’s really starting to feel Christmassy.”
Pandora was no exception, with Manager Majella Murphy saying: “It’s been busy all day; customers have been coming in waves.”
Black Friday originates in America and it is the day after Thanksgiving Day and the Friday before Cyber Monday in the States. The busy shopping day is also a holiday in some states in America.
Black Friday has caused controversy in the past with many horror stories originating from the shopping spree craze from stampedes to Black Friday fights: the bargain ‘ holiday’ has it all.