LOCAL RETAILERS are hoping that they don’t have the blues after what is recognised internationally as the Black Friday weekend.
Many of them are preparing to see rush of customers walk through their doors from as early as 5 a.m. today.
Black Friday is the informal name for the day following Thanksgiving in the United States, which was celebrated yesterday. It is the day which is regarded as the beginning of the country’s Christmas shopping season, and in recent years the trend has been repeated where many retail stores worldwide offer sales to customers on several days over the weekend.
Locally, stores such as Massy Stores, Price Smart, Cost U Less and Shopsmart have all released advertisements alerting their customers of bargains.
Efforts to reach officials at some of these stores however were unsuccessful up to Press time, with a representative of Cost U Less declining to comment. .
Operations Manager at Shopsmart Mark Niles said they would be having a Midnight Madness sale, but it had nothing to do with the international day. The dates were coincidental as they were marking the company’s annual anniversary.
“There is no need for Shopsmart to have a Black Friday sale, that’s an American thing and we are a Barbadian company. When Shopsmart started this sale, no other company in Barbados was having a Black Friday sale,” he said.
Niles also said that over the years the sale had always been very successful and they were hoping to repeat it.
“It’s something that our customers look forward to every year. From in October you always hear people asking when is the sale going to be,” he added.
The sales will be on popular items including curtains, household products, Christmas trees, alcohol, electronics and furniture. (TG)
