Suffering from buyer’s remorse
THERE will be buyer’s remorse at the breakfast table this morning after a shopaholics’ Black Friday binge across the city yesterday.
Durbanites pushed their way through bumper-to-bumper trolleys and traffic, both inside and outside shopping malls, with queues forming from before dawn.
By mid-morning, a stampede in which one woman was injured at Westville’s Pavilion went viral, while a number of online shopping sites crashed with takealot. com stating “we hit a bump in the road” as its site went down.
ER24 spokesman Russell Meiring said, “Our paramedics responded at the Pavilion. The woman was treated after she injured her shoulder. The cause of this incident is not known.”
Galleria in eManzimtoti and uMhlanga’s Gateway Theatre of Shopping also had massive queues, with the country’s major retailers slashing prices and offering bargains, while small businesses also joined in the cut-price war.
By late yesterday, shoppers were still hunting for bargains.
At City View Mall in Greyville, Nathan Pillay, 39, said he went out shopping but he could not get anything he wanted except a Christmas tree and that it was definitely not worth waiting in the line for it.
“There wasn’t anything glaringly saying 50 percent off. I think the term Black Friday is just a way to catch one’s attention,” he said.
Nomusa Cele, 53, specifically went shopping for a kettle and while looking for one could not resist the temptation of Black Friday grocery deals.
She said it was worth going shopping and waiting in the queue and that next year she is going to make a special budget.
Ayanda Mashologu, 39, was not deterred by the crowd and long queues and after waiting for three hours in one queue and 90 minutes in another, managed to get almost everything she wanted.
“I’ve been shopping from 8.50am to 3.10pm and it was worth it, ” said Mashologu.
According to executive director of Durban and Coastal Mental Health Gita Harie it is more than likely that the retail hangover will kick in this morning.
“There will be buyer’s remorse, especially from those who are on a tight budget who will wake up and say ‘I should not have done this’,” said Harie.
She added that while getting that “on special” item, shoppers often bought more products than they were originally going to buy.
She added that people often start acting “out of character” when they get caught up in a crowd waiting for a shop to open.
“Black Friday is a strategic concept by business to get people to start spending for the festive season.”