BLACK FRIDAY 2017 - The Sheeple Come Out Looking For Deals

 Slow start for Black Friday in after days of early bargains Retailers report fewer shoppers in-store and online, but John Lewis and Argos report heavy web traffic in run-up to day Black Friday 2017: the best UK deals all in one place Black Friday fever has been dampened by days of early discounts, with many online and high street shoppers choosing to stay in bed rather than battle for bargains in the early hours.

The number of shoppers online between midnight and 7am was 24% lower than last year, according to the e-commerce trends service PCA Predict, after an 11% rise in shopping over the previous week. haul
“This longer sales period has shifted the emphasis away from Black Friday being a major retail event in its own right, towards becoming part of a pre-Christmas mini-season or ‘golden quarter’ for retailers,” said Chris Boaz, ‎the head of marketing at PCA Predict.
Black Friday 2017: all the best UK deals and offers in one place
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Evidence of a slow start in the UK to the US-inspired discount day was also seen on the high street as retail experts said there were empty stores at chains which had opened early to prepare for queues of bargain hunters.

Gordon McKinnon, the operations director at the shopping centre group Intu, which owns Manchester’s Trafford Centre and the Metrocentre in Gateshead, said: “Black Friday has a more relaxed feel in the UK, as shoppers visit stores at their leisure before numbers pick up later in the day. If previous years’ patterns are anything to go by, we’re expecting the day to get busier and hit a peak this evening when those finishing work will join the hunt for deals. By the end of today, we should have seen well above 1 million shoppers through our doors.” For the past few generations, some say we’ve been living in the Information Age. Or the Space Age. Or the Atomic Age. But if I could name it, I’d call it the Mall Age.

Since the first U.S. indoor mall – the Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota – opened in 1956, the mall has been the place to be. Future historians will look at movies from “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” to “Dawn of The Dead” to “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and know that there was once this place where we all gathered, a place that meant a lot to us.

But Black Friday is well-named this year. The day after Thanksgiving, when shopping is supposed to kick into high gear, may instead sound the death knell for that great American institution of the mall.

Why? The short answer: Amazon. A slightly longer answer: online shopping saves money and makes it unnecessary to drive to the mall. And one-stop shopping at stores like Walmart and Target – not to mention dollar shops popping up like mushrooms – is more convenient and generally cheaper than shopping at the mall.

Over the last decade or so, U.S. department stores have lost about a third of their revenue. Giants like Sears, J.C. Penney and Macy’s have been shedding outlets like a St. Bernard sheds fur.

And specialty stores that populated malls are falling by the wayside as well.

Look at bookselling behemoth Borders, defunct since 2011. Or RadioShack, which filed for "Black Friday" 2017 "Thanks Giving" Thanksgiving holiday holidays Christmas Bargain Deal "Black Friday Deals" Discount Mall "Online Shopping" Amazon TV Laptop Shopping "Shopping Mall" "Boxing Day Sale" "Boxing Day" "cyber Monday" online tech laptop apple iphone Sale 2018 u.s. usa america "united states" Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2015. Or Payless, the shoe store that announced its bankruptcy this year. There’s trouble at the Gap, Banana Republic, Gymboree, Michael Kors, Ann Taylor and so on and so on. Hundreds of malls are expected to shutter in the next few years. This would have been unimaginable in my childhood, when malls were being built, not abandoned. But, in fact, there’s been no construction on a major new mall since 2006.

Some aren’t giving up, trying to cater to modern shoppers. This means a livelier atmosphere, a more stylish layout, increased activities, better food, whatever they can come up with. It could also mean more Apple stores. Or Amazon bookstores.

I wish these malls luck, but the future looks grim. Kids don’t hang out at malls like they used to. They hang out on social media.

Of course, in some ways, this is an appropriate revenge. Malls grew with the car culture, as Americans moved to the suburbs. This led to the decline of the beloved town square.

And look at Sears, which is in serious trouble. More than a century ago, before moving into department stores, Sears made its money through its famed mail-order catalog – the Amazon of its day. What goes around, comes around.










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