to feel enormously irritated by 'black friday'

[holdyourown]

I mean what even is it. Yet more US imported nonsense imo

yes, I agree.

what does anything actually cost any more? with 20% off here and 15% off there, it's all so cynical and manipulative.

have the shops just loaded up on tat which they plan to shift on BF?

I thought it represented the day of the calendar year where the business went out of the red and into the black - rest of year's sales are profit?

What harm is it doing you or why is it bothering you?

I feel your itchiness - but lots of these companies ARE american - such as Asda/Walmart

It is an import - traditionally Christmas shopping kicks in in the USA the first Friday after Thanksgiving (today) - which is when they go all out to flog their tat - but I do grit my teeth when I see it here - can't put my finger on why though

It's annoying the shit out of me too.

All the retailers announcing IT'S BLACK FRIDAY like it's a thing that happens every year and trying to hype us up into a frenzy.

It feels very cynical, artificial and forced.

On the other hand, OOH CHEAP STUFF.

It's pretty bizzare to have Black Friday anywhere but the US, where it's the post-Thanksgiving spendathon (I don't know if the Friday is a public holiday but my company they all seem to have to take both days off)

yes it annoys me too. We don't do sales like they do in the USA. Theres no point pretending we do. If you've seen the bargain hunter programmes they know exactly what is being reduced and by how much. decent sized discounts etc. whereas here e drop a couple of £ and expect everyone to be in a frenzy to get the bargain.

It's annoying me too, even though I realise it's all one big marketing ploy to get us to part with our hard earned cash I still want to grab a "bargain" but can't because I'm broke and this makes me even more annoyed because I really should know better.

Last year Black Friday where I work was just horrendous, there were grown men and women physically fighting over TVs and DVD players

What tethers said.

They seem to be trying to hoodwink us into believing that it's a Thing in this country and therefore we are duty bound to go out and spend loads of cash on unnecessary crap. They think we're stupid and sadly a lot of people are.

YABU. It's just a sale.

Debenhams have a sale every few weeks. Mostly, I just ignore it. I have never felt that my quality of life has suffered because of yet another blue cross event.

It's like Groupon, when there were one or two offers per day it felt like something you should go for, now it's all become meaningless as everything is being discounted. It's just that the prices were stupidly high in the first place.

I agree.

Someone said to me 'Oh its Black friday' like its a thing. I do actually know what its about but pretended not to asked what it was (sales) I asked why? they couldn't tell me.

We don't celebrate Thanks Giving, its not a thing. It can go back, there are sales on anyway.

There are some good bargains to be had but most of it is rubbish.

Just seen an Amazon Black Friday deal on something I bought DS last year at full price from Smyths. Yes, it was the same price.

These days there seems to be a sale on everywhere for about 75% of the time, so I get to the point where I don't trust any 'sale' price I see anyway. Unless it's the classic end of season sale where you can clearly see that something has been marked down from its previous actual price, rather than some temporarily artificially inflated one. That gives me the rage.

It's just another sale. Same rules apply: but what you were planning to buy at full price anyway, ignore the rest.

anything that pushes christmas spending back to after thanksgiving is a good thing in my books - wherever it comes from!

Unless you are after something specific and you know the usual retail price then it's pointless. I have no idea what an Anglepoise lamp normally costs or a complete box set of Columbo and I don't trust Amazon's 'discount' % either.

And yes, 'sale fatigue' really annoys me. Clothes retailers send me emails every other day about their AMAZING X% off deal or lightning sale. After a while I just think that I won't bother buying anything from there as I can't trust them on price.

YANBU. Imported hype hoping to make us spend money on supposedly discounted goods, that in reality the prices were hiked previously purely so they could be discounted for the sale.

I've looked at a few "Black Friday" deals, and they are the same price as you can get elsewhere. If you can find a true bargain, great, but I think Jan sales are much better for that as that's when retailers really struggle in the UK.

Am American and tbh I don't even understand Black Friday in the States. Why get up at silly o'clock for items that are likely to be discounted even more closer to Christmas?

The Black Friday phenomenon in the UK is proving to be yet another poorly executed American import (see: proms, baby showers, Halloween)

I didn't know America invented Halloween!

Wow the country that just keeps giving...

America did not invent Hallowe'en!

It irritates me too. Not the sales, I love a bargain but the way the shops behave like we have always had it.
I went to Asda this morning and the guy on the checkout warned me not to go in tomorrow! He said they are having a big delivery tonight so they can flog everything tomorrow and that he is dreading how busy it will be!

I'm not complaining, my inbox has been flooded with 20% discount codes for websites that I was going to be buying Christmas presents from anyway. It's just a sales gimmick and I won't say no to a discount code.

YANBU - it's giving me the screaming ab-dabs! Seems like every single retailer is using it ad nauseam without having the faintest idea why they're using it. Lazy bandwaggoning and v v v annoying.

Don't say that out loud Kate!

America likes to take the credit for anything thats good.

I was asked by two different Americans to name a good looking British man and a good British band.

I said Robert Pattinson (yes hes good looking!) and Mumford and Sons.

Both replied with erm .... They're American