Black Friday - love it or loathe it?

Black Friday is the last Friday in November when retailers offer massive discounts. It also traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in the US. Each year Black Friday deals seem to get earlier and earlier as businesses encourage shoppers to bag bargains ahead of Christmas. This year, however, many big names such as M&S and Next have decided not to participate in Black Friday due to lots of concerns about whether the sales actually offer value for money.

For small businesses, Black Friday can actually be a really stressful and negative time. Especially with the cost of living crisis, it is almost impossible for them to keep their prices competitive whilst their running costs skyrocket. Many are unable to offer the same mega discounts that larger retailers offer, leaving them heavily reliant on loyal customers to support them.

For consumers it can become a bit tricky. Most of us want to support small, independent businesses where we can, but when there is a similar product on offer at a much cheaper price elsewhere, it becomes hard to know what to do.

Some of our biggest issues with the whole concept include artificially high prices in the lead up to Black Friday to look as though there are bigger discounts and unnecessary pressures on the planet from people buying things that they don’t actually want or need.

We absolutely love how some of our favourite companies have done it differently:

Finisterre - Turning black Friday blue and swapping discounts for donations to Level Water - a UK charity providing specialist swimming lessons for children with disabilities.

Lucy & Yak - Fior di Loto Friday, helping send more girls to the Fior di Loto foundation for vital education & support. Half of the profits over black Friday weekend went to this amazing charity.

Ocean Bottle - Turning black Friday blue by doubling all donations on orders. For every ocean bottle sold, they fund the collection equivalent to 2000 plastic bottles in weight before they reach the ocean.

It can be easy to forget about the mindless consumption, excessive packaging and shipping waste that is generated from Black Friday amongst all the chaos of bagging a bargain or two, but in the lead up to Christmas, remember that one thoughtful gift from a small business is more meaningful than lots of ‘stuff’ from larger corporations.

Sunny wishes,

Jo & Vic