The British don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, of course, but they have enthusiastically embraced another great American holiday tradition: Black Friday. A little too enthusiastically, it seems. Now, some retailers are even trying to dial back some of the frenzy they unleashed just a few years after introducing the whole idea.
That is because, for a nation that prides itself on its decorous behavior, last year was ugly. Or, what in America is called a typical Black Friday.
At one flagship Asda store in northwest London, part of a retail chain owned by Walmart, one young woman was seen on the floor, desperately clinging to a 40-inch discounted television as several teenagers tried to grab it away.
Indeed, a Black Friday backlash appears to be gathering force at a time when some traditionalists are already bemoaning the way that Halloween, with its kitsch and goofy costumes and edible eyeball cakes, is slowly supplanting Guy Fawkes Day, the four-centuries-old British festival that falls on Nov. 5.
The explanation for how Britons came to embrace Black Friday seems to reside in a mix of canny unbridled capitalist opportunism, the fetishizing of things American, the explosion of online shopping and two giant retailers called Walmart and Amazon.
but Black Friday works in the US because most people are off work and out of school for Thanksgiving, increasing the amount of potential shoppers. Unless there is a day off following US Thanksgiving in the UK I'm not aware of.
but Black Friday works in the US because most people are off work and out of school for Thanksgiving, increasing the amount of potential shoppers. Unless there is a day off following US Thanksgiving in the UK I'm not aware of.
It's so dumb.
It was WALMART-owned ASDA that started it. Embarrassing tbh.
Funnily enough all of my customers on Wednesday were saying they don't like it and won't take part. Most of them are little old ladies though so I can see why.
Also I thought ASDA said they weren't doing BF this year?
Idgi. People are way more civil with the boxing day sales and those are way more popular. The way people buy into American consumerist culture in this country is a bit pathetic tbh
