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Shop addicts brace for Black Friday

by BustopTV

By Lerato Ndlovu

November has begun, Black Friday is also slowly approaching and passports are already being packed, pockets being saved budgeting on its peak for this moment as people have already started putting together a list of items to look for.

Many retailers have already started announcing some Black Friday deals, but the best deals won’t be announced until Black Friday itself or at least partway through thanksgiving.

Research has shown that the Black Friday phenomenon has grown faster in South Africa than any other country in the world. 

Black Friday traditionally kick-starts the holiday shopping season. In South Africa, it has escalated into a whirlwind of big-ticket discounts across all categories, making it the most popular time of the year to splurge.

In the past year, a couple of popular South African retailers’ pricing and advertising have come under scrutiny, making it even more important for consumers to ensure they do their homework before spending on any big-ticket items this Black Friday. 

In Zimbabwe, The only black Friday that is well known is that of November 1997 when the Zimbabwean dollar crushed losing 75% of its value to the United States dollar. To date outlets such as , Edgars, Mattress Furnitures, TV Sales and Hire embraced this concept.

In 2019, Black Friday will be on Friday 29th November.

Expect bigger deals for Black Friday 2019 especially for electronics, furniture, appliances, phones, laptops, clothes, cosmetics, and more, from shops retailers In South Africa such as House and Home, Pick n Pay, Dis-Chem, Sportscene, Vodacom, Clicks, Zando, Edgars, Makro, Mr Price, Woolworths, Truworths, Superbalist, Dion wired amongst others.

Black Friday was first mentioned in 1951. It was used to describe people calling in sick the day after Thanksgiving. After securing the sick day people would hit the shops to get a head start on the Christmas shopping. 

While this all sounds negative, the term was firmly positive for retailers. The Friday after Thanksgiving was actually one of the most profitable for them. Just as they still do today, accountants used black to show profit gain when recording each day in their account book, while red was a sign of a loss. So Black Friday became linked to the black of the account book, with retailers promoting it as almost an unofficial ‘shopping holiday’.

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