Weird cause for sales frenzy

Prince Charles and I don’t share a lot of opinions – but this week I was hailing the king in waiting. One day ahead of Black Friday, he called for Britain to ‘‘eliminate its throwaway society and become better at ‘unmaking’ and ‘re-making’ clothes’’.

Black Friday – in case you’ve missed it – is a massive retail sale that follows Thanksgiving Day in the United States, where last year a record US$5 billion (NZ$7.4b) was spent online in the first 24 hours after Thanksgiving.

Weirdly, it’s gaining traction around the world, with Black Friday creeping into Britain, Europe and now New Zealand. I say weirdly because last time I looked none of us celebrated Thanksgiving. This is not our holiday. This is not our sale. This should not be our thing.

I have never been more inundated with marketing e-bumpf. Oh, aside from Christmas, of course. But at least we celebrate Christmas here.

I’ve had emails pushing sales on travel, clothes, plants, makeup, electrical goods, massage treatments, even online training courses. Farmers went as far as buying wrapround advertising for the front and back page of The Dominion Post.

The term Black Friday came out of Philadelphia in the 1950s, when shoppers flooded the city after Thanksgiving looking for bargains at the sales, causing mayhem in the city.

In Britain, where retailers slash prices on everything and anything to start people spending in the run-up to Christmas, Brits spent an estimated £1.8m (NZ$2.39m) a minute between Black Friday and its sales twin, Cyber Monday.

I have to pause here to commend Flight Centre. In the middle of this ridiculous barrage of Black Friday sales and promos, they made me smile by inventing their own sales day, Red Thursday.

This day relates to nothing at all, except that red is Flight Centre’s brand colour and it wasn’t a Friday, which had already been taken. I applaud their quirky sense of fun and deciding to start their own thing: why not?

So, what next? Blue Monday? Taupe Tuesday? White Wednesday?

Meanwhile, over in China they’ve just celebrated Single’s Day. This annual event on November 11 is, beyond argument, the biggest single retail sales day in the world, with Asian online sales portal Alibaba recording US$30.8b in transactions over its websites and services this day last year.

Single’s Day was invented by students at a university in the early 1990s to celebrate their single status. Now it’s creeping into Southeast Asia and, strangely, some Scandinavian countries.

I’m waiting for that nugget to pop up here as well, but as it falls on Armistice Day that might not work for us. But as we’ve seen, when did that kind of thing ever stop retailer marketers.

So, I was pretty impressed with our prince last week when he stepped up at an environmental summit saying enough is enough and, with a new grandchild on the way, it was a one-time opportunity to save the planet.

This was followed by calls to boycott Black Friday because of environmental concerns, particularly the focus on the sale of cheap and unethically produced clothing.

Turns out no-one is actually spending less on clothes because of these bargains – they’re spending more, and dumping clothes after a few wears.

Prince Charles has never really been a powerful role model, but the new royals do have huge influence. Perhaps he could convince his boys and their wives to celebrate Black Friday next year by pulling out their sewing machines and remodelling last year’s fashion. 1. Broadcaster Gary McCormick, columnist Joe Bennett and country singer Marlon Williams are residents of what historic South Island town?

2. Who are Kiritapu Allan, Chris Penk and Mark Patterson?

3. What British-based sports clothing company still uses the name of the New Zealand province where it originated?

4. The London neighbourhood of Hatton Garden is a centre of what trade?

5. What first name is shared by a jazz musician with the surname Mangione, a retired test pilot with the surname Yeager and an actor and martial arts exponent with the surname Norris?

6. Wellington Phoenix footballer Roy Krishna plays for what national side?

7. How many states in the US have ‘‘North’’ as part of their name?

8. What type of hobbyist is likely to have something called a layout in the garage or spare room?

9. In Australia, what do the initials ACTU stand for?

10. What song was a Top 10 hit for the Supremes in 1968 and Phil Collins in 1983?

1. Lyttelton; 2. Members of Parliament; 3. Canterbury; 4. Jewellery; 5. Chuck; 6. Fiji;

7. Two: North Carolina and North Dakota; 8. A model train enthusiast; 9. Australian Council of Trade Unions; 10. You Can’t Hurry Love. Anyone wishing to make a complaint to the New Zealand Media Council should first put it in writing to the editor. If not satisfied with the reply, complainants should then write to The Secretary, New Zealand Media Council, Box 10 879, Wellington, including a clipping of the disputed article and copies of the correspondence. Letters are welcome, but writers must provide their name, address and telephone number as a sign of good faith – pseudonyms are not acceptable. So that as many letters as possible can be published, each letter should be no more than 250 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for length, sense, legal reasons and on grounds of good taste. Please send your letters to: The Editor, The Southland Times, PO Box 805, Invercargill; fax on (03) 214 9905; or email to letters@stl.co.nz Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. Psalm 100:4