Brits report calmer Black Friday
Retailers avoid last year’s chaos as consumers look online
LONDON — British retailers breathed a sigh of relief as Black Friday started without the mayhem that characterized the event last year.
Tesco, Britain’s largest retailer, was “very pleased” with how the day started out and witnessed no repeat of the unrest that occurred at some stores last year, according to a company official. The supermarket chain closed all its larger stores, which are usually open 24 hours a day, between midnight and 5 a.m. to give staff time to prepare. Orderly lines formed outside many outlets before shoppers were allowed in.
In Britain, Black Friday sales events are still in their infancy.
Retailers were unprepared for their popularity last year, when camera crews filmed bargain hunters flooding into stores and fighting over an inadequate number of bargain-price televisions and smartphones. To prevent a repeat, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Asda chain canceled Black Friday this year, opting to spread its discounting from November into January.
“The day is beginning to become synonymous with queues, brawls and general mayhem,” Tim Vallance, lead director of U.K. retail at property firm JLL, said by email. “Consumers and retailers alike will want to see more orders driven online.”
A recent poll suggests that may be happening. Only 13 percent of Britons planned to visit a store to grab a bargain this Black Friday, compared with 35 percent that intended to scour websites for deals, according to a survey conducted yesterday by researcher Kantar. More than half of the 3,604 people interviewed had no plans to seek a discount.
Currys PC World, a unit of Dixons Carphone Plc, said it had a record start to Black Friday, with 30 televisions being sold online every minute. By 9 a.m., the number of transactions on appliance retailer ao.com’s
site had doubled compared with last year.
Not everybody was staying indoors. In London’s West End shopping district, the number of visitors to shops and designer boutiques was up 10 percent on last year. The New West End Co., which represents retailers in the area, expects Black Friday to be the busiest day of 2015.