What is Black Friday? And Cyber Monday?

Up until a few years ago, I had no clue what Black Friday or Cyber Monday was. Where I grew up, Black Sunday, is an all day pub crawl, which happens in Bridgwater, Somerset, if you are part of a carnival club. Black Friday and Cyber Monday were unheard of in my eyes until a few years ago, when I discovered that in America, Black Friday is one almighty sale, which reportedly leads to riots in electrical stores, websites crashing and people queueing for hours before the shops even open.

I guess I must have had blinkers on, because it turns out, that Black Friday and Cyber Monday, now exist in the UK too! I didn’t find this out until last year.

Black Friday is actually the day after Thanksgiving in America. All the shops, both tangible stores and online stores, offer huge discounts on products, to mark what they deem, “the first day of the Christmas shopping period”. Now this delights me, because I always get annoyed with people who ask if I’ve started my Christmas shopping in September or October. No… of course I haven’t! I even wrote a post titled, “Christmas is in December” to get my point across. So now I can use the fact that Black Friday (which usually happens at the end of November), is the start of Christmas shopping season, in my arguments.

Last year, was the first year I have partaken in Black Friday shenanigans and I’m pleased to say, I did so from the comfort of my bed. At midnight – so I could get in there before all the websites started crashing. I only shopped for children’s toys but I bought three of the biggest things on Santa’s list, for substantial discounts. Obviously now, it makes sense to me, to do the same again this year. Some retailers, like the popular fashion brand Simply Be, are already advertising their Black Friday sale.

Cyber Monday, is the online equivalent of Black Friday. So although many retailers offer Black Friday deals on their websites, some only do Cyber Monday deals and some do both. In my experience of this last year, I learnt that some retailers hold products back to use exclusively for Cyber Monday, which are not available on Black Friday. Whereas other retailers, use Cyber Monday to get rid of the items which didn’t sell on Black Friday. For those retailers, obviously the best products are already sold out.

Tips

If you are shopping in an actual store on Black Friday, it’s probably best to leave the children with a relative, as stores get crowded and chaotic. Some even feature on the news as people push and shove and fight over high value products.

If shopping online, do your research first. Find out what items each retailer is planning to put in it’s sales and have the webpages loaded and ready to refresh at midnight. Don’t hang about if there’s something in particular you really want. Get it in your basket and checkout. You can always go back and get the accessories later, but if you take too long filling your basket, they could be sold out before you even enter your payment details.

Black Friday for this year, is on Friday 24th November 2017 and Cyber Monday is on Monday 27th November 2017.