‘Black Friday’ in the United States is traditionally the day after Thanksgiving where big stores offer bargains to shoppers, with it signalling the start of the Christmas shopping season and in recent years it has been adopted by stores in the UK and in Fermanagh, with large crowds queuing up from the early hours last year to avail of the massive savings and cut price offers.

The new manager of Erneside Shopping Centre Jim Masterson explained that businesses in the centre are once again getting into the ‘Black Friday’ spirit.

 

“It’s across the board and not specifically black Friday, businesses are putting on promotions for the week. It’s quite a mixed bag of what everyone’s doing.”

 

Mr Masterson does not expect it to hit the heights of last year, but is still hopeful the increased numbers through the doors will help kick off the shopping season.

 

“Black Friday is growing, but I think even already the activity this year isn’t quite as frantic, it’s not on the same scale as last year, but I think there’s definitely going to be deals to be had.”

“It will be a wee spike and it will certainly gain a bit of interest. Certainly from a cross-border point of view I’m sure people will come along to see what’s available. The likes of Argos and others are probably the areas you go to first because they stock high price items.”

 

Managing director of Houstons department store, Enniskillen John Houston explained that ‘Black Friday’ promotions has grown steadily over the past three years and is now the “most significant promotional weekend in the entire autumn season.”

 

“It’s the start of serious Christmas shopping. Five years ago we adjusted our promotional calendar accordingly to make a weekend  for black Friday where we offer discounts in every single department. We have changed from a November bargain weekend as black Friday is now very much relevant in the retail world.”

 

While it is expected the likes of Amazon and other online retailers will see the most significant boost in sales from the ‘Black Friday’ promotions Mr Houston believes our high street stores still have an important role to play.

 

“We still believe that while online shopping is hugely important the majority of customers still like to see and handle the product. The multiples really take it seriously and we have followed in line. From Thursday right through to Sunday we have our  promotions running. This will be our busiest weekend prior to Christmas week.”

 

Earlier this month Asda confirmed it was stepping back from the ‘Black Friday’ sales due to ‘shopper fatigue setting in around flash sales on big-ticket, non-essential items at Christmas’. Tesco will however partake in ‘Black Friday’ with promotions running from Friday through to Monday.