#slackfriday

In recent years, we’ve seen the celebration of consumerism grow in the form of Black Friday. It has only crept into popular culture here in New Zealand over the past several years.

In the US, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving Thursday. While it’s not a public holiday, many people take the day off to make a long weekend. It used to be a time for relaxing and enjoying more moments with family and friends. Over time, however, this day of rest has been overtaken by a frantic rush for deals.

Once Thanksgiving ends, corporates shift their focus to Christmas sales. Black Friday (and subsequently Cyber Monday) has become a way to kickstart the Christmas retail season, enticing people away from their families and into the crush of big department stores with flashy discounts.

At Bicycle Junction, we’ve always tried to put our best foot forward on pricing. We believe that the quality of our products and great service should speak for themselves - not big deals or inflated marketing budgets. For that reason, we don’t run rolling sales unless we genuinely have stock to clear.

The last two years have been tough for the retail industry. There are plenty of deals out there and businesses that need to move stock to keep trading. We understand this and make no judgment. We’ve been in that position too, with high stock levels that required us to offer big discounts just to stay afloat.

But jumping on the bandwagon for a sale just because it’s a trend in the States isn’t our thing. We’d rather sit it out and take the day to celebrate our hardworking staff. Sure, it can be tempting, especially when we do have stock we need to clear, but the point is: our staff are more important. Black Friday is the one day we take to enjoy a great time together.

So, we won’t see you on Black Friday - but we hope you have a wonderful day. See you on Saturday!