With just two days to go to Black Friday (November 25), the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira), whose membership includes many gift retailers, has revealed that the majority of its members will be boycotting the Black Friday sales this year.
“In general, independent retailers do not see Black Friday as an opportunity,”states Bira’s ceo Andrew Goodacre. “This has been a recurring trend over the years as the large chains and internet retailers dominate the consumer marketing.”
He continued: “From an indie retail perspective, Black Friday is seen as a big business, internet event. This makes it very hard for the smaller retailers to compete as they do not have the buying power of the large retailers.”
Of those surveyed by Bira, 86% revealed they would not be holding a Black Friday sale (1% higher than 2021), while almost 70% said they had not participated in it in previous years.
Instead, Andrew urged independent stores to consider supporting Colour Friday,the brainchild of Holly Tucker MBE, the founder of Holly & Co., and co-founder of notonthehighstreet. The initiative encourages people to celebrate the colour and creativity that small businesses bring by buying Christmas gifts from UK independents.
“We are supporting creative ideas such as Colour Friday and Green Friday, which has a focus on sustainability, as these are vents that focus on the smaller, local retailers,” explained Andrew. “We are also advocates of Small Business Saturday which brings the small business into the public mind. We urge shoppers to continue to support their local retailers who offer value in the form of quality products at good prices.”
For more details about Colour Friday visit: www.holly.co/colour-friday-2022/
