It’s that time of year again and my inbox is filling up with ‘BLACK FRIDAY EVENT’ emails!

I won’t be setting my alarm early to hit the shops and I have a few good reasons why…

1. I don’t enjoy shopping, I used to love it before I had kids but now it’s a chore that I just don’t have time for.

2. Busy shops are my worst nightmare, long queues and people pushing and shoving to get the last [ever so slightly discounted] thing off the shelve. It reminds me of Car Boot sales – people pushing and shoving to get my second-hand junk and that’s if they haven’t already pulled it out of the boot of my car for me!

3. It doesn’t actually do anything for businesses, most of the larger discounted items are outdated items that are at least a year old and need to be cleared from warehouses.

I would rather spend a bit more this weekend and support my smaller local businesses that don’t have the budget to spare on marketing for black Friday or the flexibility to drop prices.
If you hadn’t guessed already – I’m not a fan. I’m not sucked in that easily. The whole point of black Friday is to get you to consume when you wouldn’t normally.
As I am sat here writing this, I get another email notification ‘Black Friday Bonanza Begins’. I’ve even had an email off our compliance company titled ‘Black Friday Special Offers’…. I opened that one as I was intrigued by what they could possibly have on sale!

But just because I’m not sucked in, it doesn’t mean we all aren’t, Black Friday is the biggest shopping event of the year.

For me, the only black thing this Friday will be my mood. I’m already sitting here beating myself up for not taking the time to opt out when GDPR came in – fortunately it’s never too late so later this evening I’m going to have a culling session. Black Friday you have at last been of use to me! May cyber Monday be a more peaceful day for my inbox.