Really Bagging the Bargains; box verses black.
29 Nov 2019
Dear LPG,
Just in case you don’t know yet today is “Black Friday”, but do you remember the days when the January sales provoked the longest queues in London? People would queue for days in preparation to make sure that they got the best bargains and the queues would be televised and be shown as one of those ‘ and finally’ items at the end of the news bulletins.
Even though it never got reported, and the shorter wait allowed me to have a merrier Christmas day, I can think back to a couple of Boxing Days which started pretty early in a queue for Cheasman’s in Lewisham or any other high street. The cold did not deter anyone, and the friendly chat would include the most talked about subject in London, the weather, until the shop doors opened and then it was every shopper for themselves ! I was a lot younger and the customers were looking for new innovations, which were much less innovative back then, but the ritual happened every year.
These days the younger ones still fight for those bargains but they will find themselves up early, sat in the comfort of their house somewhere. I can well imagine those young shoppers, sat up in bed with their tablet or lap top, or I can imagine my grandchildren in the warmth of the living room, trying their best to be quiet so as not to wake the rest of the house, while they wait for the appointed sale opening, or closing time, with fingers hovering over their desktop or laptop computers doing their best not to miss out. I think that the younger online consumers of recent years of don’t know what they are missing really; the bracing weather conditions, the chat, the sense of extra value that having grabbed that item that the other lady wanted too provides; not to mention the exercise that the rush into the shop allowed all the ‘queuers ‘as they fought for position.
In our 21st century version of England, Boxing day is often a bit of an anti-climax after the festivities of Christmas day but in the mid to late 20th century Boxing day was significant for so many more reasons ,even though I have to say that having the sales after the event was another reason for the limit put on the cost of Christmas presents. These days the big sale is on “Black Friday” invented to fall on the last payday before Christmas so that the shops capitalise from the present- buying frenzy.
So, although the post-sales banter about what each shopper managed to ‘bag on the day’ appears to be much the same, I strongly believe that today’s youngsters don’t know what they missed!
I suppose that the real sales still happen, but the digital sales are slowly overtaking the traditional reality we older ones remember. I cannot help but have a little smile when I think of the ways that the sales have changed over the years.
HY, Ladywell.
LPG found some memories…
