Black Friday Sales Suffer in the Cost of Living Crisis

Shoppers at Apple Store, jardenberg Creative Commons

Black Friday has been a more muted affair this year amidst the financial difficulties that Britain is facing this year. 

There are fears that this Christmas buying season could be the worst seen in the last ten years.

Although the Guardian found that footfall on the high street was up compared to last year, online shopping was down by 5%. This increase in footfall could be due to Black Friday sales, or it could simply be that this time last year many people were still living in fear of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, preventing them from taking to the streets for their deals. 

One university student said “I haven’t bought anything in the Black Friday sales this year, I need to save my money up.” 

Barclaycard Payments did find that use of their cards was up by 3.6% but this is not the surge that shops across the country were hoping for. 

Physical video game sales were down by 15% this year compared to the same selling period last year. Not all is lost for the industry however as individual game sales, such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Sonic Frontiers, were up by over 200% over the weekend.

These disappointing numbers might be due to any number of reasons. The world cup has been providing a distraction for many people, giving them a reason to stay inside and watch the game instead of jumping on the sales. 

A decrease in online sales could be due to the ongoing Royal Mail strikes. Over the past 7 months of discussions an agreement has not been confirmed, with the current proposal cutting sick days, jobs and implementing tracking technology. 

The strikes have already cost the Royal Mail £100 million in profits and could have impacted many other businesses this Black Friday weekend. 

People have also made a stand against the consumerism of Black Friday by taking part in ‘Green Friday’. This is a day where you might choose to shop sustainably, take a walk in nature or work to make the planet a better place. 

eBay took the Black Friday weekend to promote buying second hand or refurbished items from its marketplace, with the UK boss saying that it was the “right thing to do”.

Other companies have offered huge discounts on items, with Amazon having a Black Friday week instead of just a day, and even Gucci has been offering a few Black Friday discounts. 

A lot of places have been continuing their low prices after Black Friday so there is still a chance to grab yourself a deal in the next few days.