When I woke up this morning and sat down to write some more of my PORTABLE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME book, I had no idea that I was going to be constantly interrupted by emails about 'Black Friday'. Every couple of minutes my computer informs me that I have yet another email offering me this or that at a discounted, one-day-only price. The problem is that every time one of these messages appears in the bottom right-hand side of the screen, it stops MS Word from processing what I am typing until I acknowledge or reject the email notification. Furthermore, I cannot seem to find the right setting to stop this from happening!
I understand that 'Black Friday' is an import from the united States, and is the equivalent of what used to be known as the 'Boxing Day' sales in the UK. In other words, the day after a national holiday when people are not at work (except – of course – those people who work in retailers) and have time on their hands to find 'bargains' in the shops. In the context of the United States, I can see the sense of having 'Black Friday' today ... but we don't celebrate 'Thanksgiving' in the UK ... yet. (I suspect that like trick-or-treat at Halloween, it will gradually be imported because the UK retailers like a reason to sell people stuff that they are convinced that they need, but don't.)
The concept has even spread to some eBay users. At present Sue is selling some bits and pieces at a 'Buy Now' price on eBay, and this morning we had an 'offer' from a potential purchaser who wanted a 33% discount. When they were sent a counter-offer of a 15% discount, they rejected it and asked why we were not taking part in 'Black Friday' and having a sale!
I have given serious thought to going back to bed, pulling the duvet over my head, and staying there for the rest of 'Black Friday'. Unfortunately, I cannot do that as I have been told that we have to go and do some shopping ... so it looks as if I am not going to be able to avoid 'Black Friday' after all.
Whilst I was writing this blog entry, I got an email from a certain large retailer of white goods offering me a new tumble dryer at a 'Black Friday' price ... which was £10.00 more than I paid for the same model tumble dryer a fortnight ago!
I understand that 'Black Friday' is an import from the united States, and is the equivalent of what used to be known as the 'Boxing Day' sales in the UK. In other words, the day after a national holiday when people are not at work (except – of course – those people who work in retailers) and have time on their hands to find 'bargains' in the shops. In the context of the United States, I can see the sense of having 'Black Friday' today ... but we don't celebrate 'Thanksgiving' in the UK ... yet. (I suspect that like trick-or-treat at Halloween, it will gradually be imported because the UK retailers like a reason to sell people stuff that they are convinced that they need, but don't.)
The concept has even spread to some eBay users. At present Sue is selling some bits and pieces at a 'Buy Now' price on eBay, and this morning we had an 'offer' from a potential purchaser who wanted a 33% discount. When they were sent a counter-offer of a 15% discount, they rejected it and asked why we were not taking part in 'Black Friday' and having a sale!
I have given serious thought to going back to bed, pulling the duvet over my head, and staying there for the rest of 'Black Friday'. Unfortunately, I cannot do that as I have been told that we have to go and do some shopping ... so it looks as if I am not going to be able to avoid 'Black Friday' after all.
Whilst I was writing this blog entry, I got an email from a certain large retailer of white goods offering me a new tumble dryer at a 'Black Friday' price ... which was £10.00 more than I paid for the same model tumble dryer a fortnight ago!
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Totally agree with you about Black Friday - its crept in here in New Zealand too in the last couple of years - part of the globilisation of culture - we had Divali celebrations for several days a couple of weeks ago and will have some big lantern festival when it is the Chinese New Year, but at least they are genuine cultural celebrations and not just an excuse for retailors to flog us crap!
ReplyDeleteRross,
DeleteThe problem that I have with the globalisation of culture is that unique national or local celebrations seem to get swamped because they aren't commercialised. Both Diwali and the Chinese New Year are very rooted in their respective Indian and Chinese cultures, and although both cultures welcome outsiders to take part, they don't force their celebrations onto others,
In the UK what was originally know as Guy Fawkes Night has evolved into a Fireworks Night ... but even that has been superseded by Halloween and 'Trick or Treat'. So in my lifetime we've gone from burning the effigy of a traitor on a bonfire and loosing of some fireworks to 'organised' firework displays and what is no much more that door-to-door begging for treats (with the undertone of implied threats of something nasty happening if you don't hand something over) in the name of undead spirits.
Not my idea of progress.
All the best,
Bob
It's the American traditional after Thanks Giving Day sale....meant to get the seriously over feed people off their sofas and into the stores to burn a few calories and dollars off :-)
ReplyDeleteDon M,
DeleteThat explains it! It makes sense when you put it that way.
All the best,
Bob
Ha! Our spam filters, or something, must be very different - I have not received even ONE Black Friday offer!
ReplyDeleteBTW, going door-to-door on Halloween asking for money/food is an old British tradition, not a US import (although it has undoubtedly received fresh impetus from the States in recent decades).
Many things people commonly dismiss as Americanisms, eg the word "soccer," and ending words with "-ize" rather than "-ise," are English in origin.
Tim Spanton,
DeleteI will check my spam filters, but most of the emails I've received are coming to one particular email address that I no longer use very much but which I keep because it very rarely fails to work when other service providers go offline for one reason or another.
I'm surprised that door-to-door begging at Halloween is an old British custom. I'd never come across it before it appeared as 'trick-or-treat'. Perhaps it wasn't very prevalent in the parts of the UK I've lived in.
As for the Americanisation of UK English ... well the greater use of IT and word processing seems to be the main driving force behind this. (Spellchecker automatically changed Americanization as I typed this reply!)
All the best,
Bob
I'd thought that trick or treat was originally more of an Irish thing in origin.
DeleteNigel Drury,
DeleteIt could well be ...
All the best,
Bob
There have been some more welcome offers this weekend. Timecast has 20% off all terrain, Diceshoponline 15% for example.
ReplyDeleteNigel Drury,
DeleteInteresting ... and worth following up.
All the best,
Bob
Plastic Soldier Company are having a 25% off sale, the spare 1/300 planes (from their Battle of Britain Game) could be useful.
ReplyDeleteNigel Drury,
DeleteEven more interesting ...
All the best,
Bob
Detest Black Friday, named for the color of ink indicating profit in the leger,and it’s ugly cousin, Cyber Monday—and I’m here in the US. The only bright spot is the counter, small business saturday, where you support non chain, and local town centers (if you still have one). I make it a point to never shop on Black Friday—but then again, that may be my “vintage” coming through, Harumph!
ReplyDeleteEd M,
DeleteI'm very much in favour of supporting local retailers whenever possible. Some years ago, my wife and I wanted to buy a dishwasher, and looked at the larger retailers. They had them in stock, but could not deliver for three to four days.
A local retailer sold us one for the same price, and when we asked if they could deliver it, the shopkeeper shook his head and said, 'The van is out doing a delivery, and then they are having lunch. Can you wait until after lunch?' Needless to say, we returned to buy from them again, and did so until the shop had to shut ... due to a 200% increase in their rent.
All the best,
Bob
It's a bit of a grey Friday here Bob. Great to see the contents list for your Napoleonic PW book in the last entry - I'm looking forward to buying my copy, at full listed price of course.
ReplyDeleteMaudlin Jack Tar,
DeleteIt's a bit of a grey, foggy day here. We did venture out to the shops ... and regret not staying at home. If I had, I might have got some more of my latest book written.
All the best,
Bob
I use gmail. No silly popup notifcations for me!
ReplyDeleteMike,
DeleteI also use several gmail addresses, and was I getting notifications of messages they received. This was because Windows automatically displayed them due to my failure to turn the email notification option off.
Needless to say, it is now turned off!
All the best,
Bob
Rob, Nigel, Tim! The modern Halloween 'Trick or Treat' with its slightly sinister overtones originated from Ireland and the celebration of Samhain (other 'Celtic' countries did not make such a big thing of Samhain), the idea being that if you placated the undead by leaving gifts then hopefully they would not harm you. Irish immigrants brought this tradition to Scotland and the US.
ReplyDeleteThe English used to things quite differently. From at least the 15th C in not before poor people were given soul cakes in return for praying those in purgatory. This way both the poor and those they prayed for benefitted, and there was no threat of being 'tricked' if you didn't give out soul cakes. It is of course redundant of me to point out that this gentle English tradition was long ago replaced by what we now have to endure every Halloween! Best wishes, Anthony
Anthony Morton (Anthony),
DeleteYour comment was very informative and explains how to two strands have come together to become our present 'affliction'.
All the best,
Bob
Bob, apologies for misspelling your name above!
ReplyDeleteCheers, Anthony
Anthony Morton (Anthony),
DeleteI answer to both Bob and Rob. I'm only called Robert when I'm in trouble!
All the best,
Bob
On behalf of the US I apologize for this invasion. :)
ReplyDelete(hardly a fair trade for the Beatles, Monty Python, etc.)
I have been avoiding the BF sales myself. I'm not going out to the shops. And I have not been looking at any online retailers or sellers.
Fitz-Badger,
DeleteNo need to apologise ... it's a self-inflicted problem. (Well, self-inflicted in the sense that British retailers copied what they thought would be an excellent way to part 'mugs' from their cash!) I understand that we have Cyber Monday to look forward to as well!
I've been avoiding all online inducements to buy, but unfortunately I could not avoid having to go shopping yesterday with my wife. The usually empty-ish car park we use was almost full to capacity and almost every shop seemed to have 'Black Friday! Today only ...' banners in their windows. I hid in the only bookshop ... which was almost empty and as quiet as a library.
That sort of sums up 'Black Friday' for me. Rampant consumerism ... but not when it comes to reading matter.
All the best,
Bob
My wife assures that Mischief Night was a thing up north long before the horrors of Halloween trick or treaterst
ReplyDeleteMartin Rapier,
DeleteI've never heard of 'Mischief Night' before, but that might explain Tim Spanton's comment about 'trick-or-treat' being an old British tradition ... although Anthony Morton's places its origin even earlier in Ireland.
All the best,
Bob
Here in Belgium it's also all about Black Friday ... one supermarket chain even had a "Black Month". Ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this whole Black Friday thing is simply decadent. It reduces humans to mindless consumers, serving the big wheels of the global economy.
Phil Dutre,
DeleteIt's getting everywhere!
One of the things my wife and I have noticed on our visits to other countries is the spread of what we term 'Euro shops'. These are the multi-national retailers (e.g. Zara, H&M, Carphone Warehouse) that seem to be found on almost every High Street or in every shopping centre.
All the best,
Bob
Oh yes, there's almost no local colour anymore, at least if you look at the shops in the main shopping areas. Sadly, the same is true for gaming shops as well. It used to be you could visit a gaming shop in a foreign country, and discover stuff you didn;t even know existed. These days, you get to see exactly the same products in any gaming shop all over the world ;-)
DeletePhil Dutre,
DeleteAlthough I live in London, the number of 'proper' games shops I can visit - as opposed to shops selling nothing but computer games - is negligible when compared to the range and number I've come across in the rest of Europe. For example, Cadiz has at least two, and I found a really good one in Copenhagen. Over recent years, some of the larger UK bookshops have begun to stock the better-selling European boxed games ... but the stock tends to be rather limited.
All the best,
Bob
So if I've got this right, we import festivities invented in America (trick or treat) which require us to buy stuff, but we then go out and buy cheap plastic tat imported from China? Is this what they call irony or have I missed something?
ReplyDeleteBrian Carrick,
DeleteSounds to me as if you are pretty well spot on!
All the best,
Bob
Dear Martin,
ReplyDeleteThat's correct. The generally accepted form of mischief around our way was to lift someone's gate off the hinges but leave it in place, in the mistaken belief that the householder would not notice. folk who owned nice gates would remove them for the night and put them back the next morning.
Regards, Chris.
p.s. Bob, wouldn't know about this sort of thing, being one of the posh ones from down South :-)
Chris Kemp,
DeleteGates! We would have loved to have been rich enough to have gates! 'Daarn saarf' most people were too poor to have gates on their cardboard box houses. Anyone who had gates had gatekeepers armed with blunderbusses to keep off all intruders, miscreants, and removers of gates. In fact, a man from Peckham was transported for life to Australia last year for trying to lift a property owner's gates. His 'It was only a joke, honest, guvnor' defence was laughed out of court.
I know that this is all true. I heard it on Fox News (just after an item about Sharia Law being applied across the whole of southern England), and anyone who doesn't believe me is a purveyor of fake news!
All the best,
Bob