Consumers fired up for frenzy

SALE. Sale. Sale – this is the word on everyone’s lips, social media platforms, newspapers, television and radio today, all in the name of Black Friday.

This is the day where most items in retails shops, food stores and just about all accredited businesses sell at a lower price.

Fights occur between shoppers as they scramble for the last items on the shelves, and most wake up in the early hours of the morning just to queue outside shops.

The South African Council of Shopping Centres said Black Friday was the precursor imprinting a trend into festive season shopping. Black Friday is originally an American retail promotion that takes place on the last Friday of November after the American Thanksgiving holiday, which originated in the 1950s.

Customer experience manager at Mimecast South Africa, Heino Gevers, warned that customers needed to look out for cybercrime. The company is the leading supplier of cloud-based email.

He said shoppers were growing more comfortable with the idea of online shopping in order to skip long queues. He said there was an increase in the number of cybercrime victims in the country.

He advised shoppers to keep their eyes peeled for dodgy website address, make use of alternative and safer payment methods and quickly report to the police station should they think they have fallen victim to cyber crime.

Secretary general of the National Black Consumer Council, Raynauld Russon, also warned customers of the emotional blackmail by retailers.

He said this was the time retailers made most profit as they would have driven shoppers into a frenzy to buy things they did not need.

“The biggest trick retailers used on shoppers was to force them to buy in bulk for a small discount.

‘‘So my tips for this kind of shopping is that you leave your emotions at home, have a budget amount that you wish to spend and carry a calculator or use your phone and write a list of what you want to buy, not because it is on special,” he said.

Russon also advised shoppers that they had a Consumer Rights Act that protected them in case they wanted to return any items.