Black Friday takes shoppers into the red

The Black Friday retail bonanza took the North Coast by storm when shoppers pushed and shoved to get their hands on the heavily-discounted specials on offer – but the spending spree may also cause many to land in debt misery.

For most of Friday, the retail frenzy resulted to traffic moving at snail’s pace through the Ballito CBD.

Simbithi Drive was one of the roads worst affected as people eagerly streamed into Checkers in search of discounts up to half price on household items. The queues extended right down the aisles. Judging from the packed store and full trolleys, this was an offer that many could not refuse.

Owner of the newly renovated Pick n Pay in Ballito Junction mall, Michael Lafferty, said that more people had bought into the idea of Black Friday and that sales were up on last year. The Pick n Pay store attracted more than 15 000 people in one day.

“It looks like Ballito is going to have two Christmas celebrations. One will be on the actual day and the other was definitely on Black Friday. The day is an interest creator and although we have not identified a particular line of products that sold well, the sales were better than last year and continued to Saturday,” said Lafferty.

Lifestyle centre manager Mark Pearse said that both the open and basement parking were jam-packed.

“The centre as a whole was very busy and the stores made an amazing turnover,” he said.

Hirsch’s group’s media and PR consultant Glenda Thompson said the weekend was a mad rush that scored the group a turnover of R47 million.

“The sales were definitely better than last year,” she said.

The downside to Black Friday is that many may have spent more than they can really afford.

According to Tongaat debt counselor Bheki Dlamini from BMH Debt Solutions, people may have spent money that they do not have.

“People buy into the hype created by Black Friday. It is like gambling. People go into the casino and spend their money thinking they are winning when they are actually losing. Credit cards have been maxed and in extreme cases people even use money from their savings and their children’s education. Many people do not get paid on the 25th. They then borrow money from loan sharks and have to repay with interest,” he said.

Dlamini said that retail advertising plays on people’s mind.

“When you really think about it, why do you need ten blocks of butter when you have a family of three? We want it because of the idea that if we do not get it we are ‘missing out’.

“When making adverts, advertisers think how to get people to buy things. So if you buy a cake, your children will love you more.

“Then when you are in the shop you buy other things that are not on promotion. You bought cream cheese on promotion but you need crackers to go with that, right?”

Checkers was the first supermarket chain to bring Black Friday to South Africa in 2014, and in 2015 and the store served more than a million customers on the day and sold enough Coke to fill more than three Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Despite numerous claims on social media, the term “Black Friday” did not originate with the selling of slaves on the day after Thanksgiving.

According to snopes.com, the term originated in the US with the phenomenon that takes place on the day after Thanksgiving Thursday, when millions of people who get the day off from work crowd into stores for what is traditionally considered the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. The term was coined by police to describe the enormous traffic jams.

Facebook Live video of Checkers Ballito: 

(Correction: In the case of Hirsch and Lifestyle Centre the original article published in the North Coast Courier print edition incorrectly stated that they had made high profits instead of turnover. This has been corrected.)

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