This year, Australia is joining in on the most overtly avaricious retail event. And it’s sickening
On Tuesday night I was chatting to the founder of a newly launched US footwear brand, who was eagerly anticipating Black Friday.
“We don’t really have that in Australia,” I said blithely.
“Oh but you will,” he said. “Amazon will take care of that.”
He was right. This morning I woke up to an inbox popping with promotional emails offering Black Friday deals:
- “One day only: exclusive beauty offers”
- “Black Friday alert: up to 50% off selected styles”
- “Black Friday: 20% off storewide”
- “4 day Price Frenzy now on”
These are not international companies – they are Australian, joining in on the most overtly avaricious retail event like never before. And it’s sickening.
Black Friday is a US shopping tradition that falls on the day after Thanksgiving, when retailers slash prices for one day only. It’s apparently been around since the early 50s, and is seen as the start of the Christmas shopping period. Customers flock to stores to pick up the best bargains, many lining up and camping out the night before, and then frequently displaying the very worst of human behaviour as they push and shove and fight over the last TV or toy.
It’s the only shopping holiday with its very own death count: 10 deaths, 105 injuries since 2006 with an honourable mention to the Texas pair who “beat, strangled and set on fire an assistant store manager to steal thousands of dollars of Black Friday sales” and the California father charged with the vehicular manslaughter of his two daughters, when, after only three hours of sleep in 24 hours, he crammed his four children into the back car seat designed for only three. According to reports: “A seat in the third row was folded down to make room for the family’s purchases.”
It has been easy to be smug from miles away, but now Australian retailers are joining in. The reasons are obvious: retail spending is dramatically down in Australia: latest figures show sales have had their biggest fall in more than four years. Sales of food, alcohol, household goods, electrical and electronic goods, footwear and accessories are all down. Furthermore, pundits are predicting Christmas, that all important sales period for so many business, is likely to be “tepid”.
And undoubtedly many retailers – particularly those who are pinning their hopes on online – are trying to head off the impending impact of Amazon. Although – as of 2pm – the online behemoth hasn’t actually launched, it’s “very close”. Black Friday is a very Amazon holiday, with the company promoting the concept heavily everywhere it launches and sweeping other retailers along for the ride.
But do we really need to import this tradition into Australia? Does anyone need $4 faux denim girls leggings, the 74-piece Jolly Santa building toy thingy for $3.49 or an evil-looking $14.95 Pokemon plush toy? Australians already send more than 20m tonnes of waste to landfill, those cheap T-shirts come at the cost of workers enduring “horrific” conditions in garment factories for minuscule wages – and frankly we can’t afford it: Australia’s household debt is amongst the highest in the world, at around 100% of GDP. And for those who are desperate for a bargain, there’s always the Boxing Day sales – if they can afford it, post-Christmas.
Finally some retailers say it’s a mixed blessing with the event putting added pressure on profit margins, and smaller retailers unlikely to feel as much of an uplift.
So let’s take a collective moment: while Thanksgiving is hardly the most laudable of festivities, surely that would be a better tradition to import than Black Friday? Why don’t we appreciate the things we already have rather than spend vast amounts on useless junk we really don’t need? Come on Australia, resist.
Published in Guardian Australia on 24 November 2017 as A sickening sales frenzy: don’t let Black Friday thrive in Australia
