6 ms·

Black friday is a thing in Italy??

by pouetpouet 9y ago

crivabene 9y ago
It is. Mostly started when Amazon landed in 2010.
louhike 9y ago
It's becoming a thing in a lot of countries. There are a lot of discounts in France.
Fnoord 9y ago
Yes, and also in other parts of Europe. Why does this surprise you? The amount of celebrations (reasons to have sales) have increased throughout the years. If you got sales regularly people will wait till stuff's on sale. Now they gotta wait less long. It might seem silly, but the whole trick is to get people to buy things they'd otherwise not buy.
cybertronic 9y ago
Yes, but sadly, not Thanksgiving
- icebraining 9y ago
  Would be weird for a mostly Catholic country. In my corner of the European south we do celebrate St. Martin's Day, although with roasted chestnuts rather than turkey. And we drink piquette, which for some reason is illegal to sell in the EU nowadays.
  - cr1895 9y ago
    >Would be weird for a mostly Catholic country. How so? There's nothing explicitly religious about the holiday. Just this morning I was reading this: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/opinion/thanksgiving-religion-inclusion.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/opinion/thanksgiving-reli...
Symbiote 9y ago
The American retailers have been busy promoting it, leaving the European competition little choice but to join in. Few people realise it's related to American thanksgiving.
- caiob 9y ago
  Does that affect Boxing day deals at all?
kristoff_it 9y ago
Discounts are a thing, black friday not that much honestly. We have other periods with discounts that are famous. I believe black friday is only a thing in italy with regard to amazon and maybe some other online shop, and we definitely don't have people stomping on each other in front of malls at opening hours.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
forinti 9y ago
It's become a thing in Brazil recently. Halloween has also become unavoidable. I find this strange, because most people couldn't give you the time of day in english.
- visarga 9y ago
  In Romania Halloween has also become a thing, to the great annoyance of the Orthodox church.
  - cisanti 9y ago
    Also in Spain! But it's the businesses that are shilling both, Halloween and Black Friday, to sell you shit you don't need. But it's strange because it happened very fast overnight when suddenly everyone decided we have to celebrate it. Many regions and countries in Europe have their own Halloween - like traditions and days that are centuries old, but American style Halloween is pushing them away.
soneca 9y ago
It is in Brazil for the last ~5 years. And we don't even have Thanksgiving here. It is just one more made up date to create advertising campaigns. Started as a shy e-commerce thing here. Then became a huge e-commerce thing. Then a huge all commerce thing. I am seeing "Black Friday" promotions everywhere, from financial services to beauty treatments. A common joke here is that it is "Black Fraud - pay 50% of the double of the price"[0] Because a lot of shops just smoothly increase their prices in the previous weeks, so when the date arrives, they can advertise "50% off discounts". To the point that there are websites monitoring this kind of fraud and official agencies inspecting and fining companies. [0] The pun "Black Friday" works in Portuguese too, as shops use the original term in English and fraud is "fraude" in Portuguese.
- consz 9y ago
  Doesn't the same thing occur in the US? I was under the impression it's always been set up so that there isn't any actual deals, just the appearance of it.
  - coldtea 9y ago
    Nope, there are some pretty sweat deals when you compare prices before and after the period. It might depend on the industry though.
  - SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
    It's also an opportunity to drop stock you don't want before the end of Q4. My impression (about the retail version, say 15-20 years ago) was that it was companies offloading stock they wanted off their books at something of a discount ahead of the holiday season, since it let the companies close out their books for the year and customers get a little bit more for the holidays. It was a win-win in a lot of ways. Then the disgusting marketing/accounting shenanigans took hold and made it shitty, particularly the online version. It's still possible to find genuine deals, mostly because retailers do still have stock they want to offload.
  - Mountain_Skies 9y ago
    That happens to some extent but many jurisdictions have laws regulating the practice of increasing prices just to cut them as an advertised discount. For national retailers who do nationwide campaigns, the hassle of structuring deals in a way that is compliant with all state and local laws would be significant.
Mountain_Skies 9y ago
It's spreading. Five years ago I was in Paraguay and they were having Black Friday sales. They didn't even translate the name into Spanish or Portuguese despite most of the customers being from Brazil and Argentina. Everyone just knew what those English words meant for shopping.
- etanol 9y ago
  In Spain, Amazon was the major retailer introducing the Black Friday to the local masses. During the next few years, other sellers joined the trend pushing it even more. This year, in order to stay competitive, Amazon Spain has been "forced" to follow the trend and have a Black Friday WEEK.
djsumdog 9y ago
The United States is the largest exporter of culture ... and war.
HelloNurse 9y ago
It's mainly an Amazon.com fixation, but various large retail chains are starting to follow suit.
kbart 9y ago
Black Friday is a thing even in China -- just look at major online retailers (AliExpress and similar). Though outside USA it has nothing to do with Thanksgiving day, elsewhere it's just another way to boost sales.
simias 9y ago
This year it's a thing in France too apparently, or at least some vendors are pushing it. See for instance amazon.fr's frontpage or even the local fnac.com. When I saw "black friday" on their landing page I thought I had gone on the american version by accident. It's odd because Thanksgiving is only something you see in American sitcoms over here. American cultural imperialism is really impressive. I can understand why Halloween gets more and more popular over here since it's a fun holiday for kids but I can't figure out how black friday makes any sense when you don't celebrate Thanksgiving. I also don't understand why they hope to make "black friday" a positive brand when the only thing I associate it with is videos of Americans trampling each other to get cheap appliances.
- bambax 9y ago
  Amazon is indeed actively pushing "Black Friday", and Fnac is playing catchup. But I don't know if anyone in France is aware that "Black Friday" means "discount"...? Also, discount days are regulated in France (called "les soldes"); normally you can't have a discount day any time you want, you have to apply for authorization. I sell on Amazon in Europe for the first time this year (started in January); I don't do discounts but am anxious to see if sales will rise this week-end.
  - simias 9y ago
    It's amusing that it means that we now effectively have a "celebration" whose only purpose and justification is buying stuff. I can't think of an equivalent.
  - tdeck 9y ago
    > Also, discount days are regulated in France (called "les soldes"); normally you can't have a discount day any time you want, you have to apply for authorization. What is the rationale for that?
    - dragandj 9y ago
      I don't have an answer for this particular thing, but will remind you that any bureaucracy tends to expand. So, what's the (state's bureaucracy) rationale to put itself at a place of control? Do they even need one?
pmontra 9y ago
It didn't exist until a few years ago, much like Halloween. Then companies discovered that they are good ways to sell more stuff and suddenly we got Halloween first, then Black Friday. We're about to get our first Starbucks shop, in Milan (2019?). To be fair, it's not only marketing. Ideas move by themselves.
kenoph 9y ago
Since Amazon & others started to advertise it heavily. But it's not like people go crazy like in the US. It's more or less yet another random excuse to sell stuff. I would say that it's still mostly an online thing.
alkonaut 9y ago
In Sweden we have Black Friday now even though we don’t have thanksgiving. But given that we somehow started to carve pumpkins etc in recent years, I don’t doubt that we’ll have turkey and annoying uncles at thanksgiving within just a few years. Right now Thanksgiving is only a Black Friday sale and nothing else.
madeofpalk 9y ago
Christmas is 'celebrated' in Japan as a retail event.

Black friday is a thing in Italy??

crivabene 9y ago

It is. Mostly started when Amazon landed in 2010.

louhike 9y ago

It's becoming a thing in a lot of countries. There are a lot of discounts in France.

Fnoord 9y ago

Yes, and also in other parts of Europe. Why does this surprise you? The amount of celebrations (reasons to have sales) have increased throughout the years. If you got sales regularly people will wait till stuff's on sale. Now they gotta wait less long. It might seem silly, but the whole trick is to get people to buy things they'd otherwise not buy.

cybertronic 9y ago

Yes, but sadly, not Thanksgiving

icebraining 9y ago
Would be weird for a mostly Catholic country. In my corner of the European south we do celebrate St. Martin's Day, although with roasted chestnuts rather than turkey. And we drink piquette, which for some reason is illegal to sell in the EU nowadays.
- cr1895 9y ago
  >Would be weird for a mostly Catholic country. How so? There's nothing explicitly religious about the holiday. Just this morning I was reading this: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/opinion/thanksgiving-religion-inclusion.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/opinion/thanksgiving-reli...

Symbiote 9y ago

The American retailers have been busy promoting it, leaving the European competition little choice but to join in. Few people realise it's related to American thanksgiving.

caiob 9y ago
Does that affect Boxing day deals at all?

kristoff_it 9y ago

Discounts are a thing, black friday not that much honestly. We have other periods with discounts that are famous. I believe black friday is only a thing in italy with regard to amazon and maybe some other online shop, and we definitely don't have people stomping on each other in front of malls at opening hours.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

forinti 9y ago

It's become a thing in Brazil recently. Halloween has also become unavoidable. I find this strange, because most people couldn't give you the time of day in english.

visarga 9y ago
In Romania Halloween has also become a thing, to the great annoyance of the Orthodox church.
- cisanti 9y ago
  Also in Spain! But it's the businesses that are shilling both, Halloween and Black Friday, to sell you shit you don't need. But it's strange because it happened very fast overnight when suddenly everyone decided we have to celebrate it. Many regions and countries in Europe have their own Halloween - like traditions and days that are centuries old, but American style Halloween is pushing them away.

soneca 9y ago

It is in Brazil for the last ~5 years. And we don't even have Thanksgiving here. It is just one more made up date to create advertising campaigns. Started as a shy e-commerce thing here. Then became a huge e-commerce thing. Then a huge all commerce thing. I am seeing "Black Friday" promotions everywhere, from financial services to beauty treatments. A common joke here is that it is "Black Fraud - pay 50% of the double of the price"[0] Because a lot of shops just smoothly increase their prices in the previous weeks, so when the date arrives, they can advertise "50% off discounts". To the point that there are websites monitoring this kind of fraud and official agencies inspecting and fining companies. [0] The pun "Black Friday" works in Portuguese too, as shops use the original term in English and fraud is "fraude" in Portuguese.

consz 9y ago
Doesn't the same thing occur in the US? I was under the impression it's always been set up so that there isn't any actual deals, just the appearance of it.
- coldtea 9y ago
  Nope, there are some pretty sweat deals when you compare prices before and after the period. It might depend on the industry though.
- SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
  It's also an opportunity to drop stock you don't want before the end of Q4. My impression (about the retail version, say 15-20 years ago) was that it was companies offloading stock they wanted off their books at something of a discount ahead of the holiday season, since it let the companies close out their books for the year and customers get a little bit more for the holidays. It was a win-win in a lot of ways. Then the disgusting marketing/accounting shenanigans took hold and made it shitty, particularly the online version. It's still possible to find genuine deals, mostly because retailers do still have stock they want to offload.
- Mountain_Skies 9y ago
  That happens to some extent but many jurisdictions have laws regulating the practice of increasing prices just to cut them as an advertised discount. For national retailers who do nationwide campaigns, the hassle of structuring deals in a way that is compliant with all state and local laws would be significant.

Mountain_Skies 9y ago

It's spreading. Five years ago I was in Paraguay and they were having Black Friday sales. They didn't even translate the name into Spanish or Portuguese despite most of the customers being from Brazil and Argentina. Everyone just knew what those English words meant for shopping.

etanol 9y ago
In Spain, Amazon was the major retailer introducing the Black Friday to the local masses. During the next few years, other sellers joined the trend pushing it even more. This year, in order to stay competitive, Amazon Spain has been "forced" to follow the trend and have a Black Friday WEEK.

djsumdog 9y ago

The United States is the largest exporter of culture ... and war.

HelloNurse 9y ago

It's mainly an Amazon.com fixation, but various large retail chains are starting to follow suit.

kbart 9y ago

Black Friday is a thing even in China -- just look at major online retailers (AliExpress and similar). Though outside USA it has nothing to do with Thanksgiving day, elsewhere it's just another way to boost sales.

simias 9y ago

This year it's a thing in France too apparently, or at least some vendors are pushing it. See for instance amazon.fr's frontpage or even the local fnac.com. When I saw "black friday" on their landing page I thought I had gone on the american version by accident. It's odd because Thanksgiving is only something you see in American sitcoms over here. American cultural imperialism is really impressive. I can understand why Halloween gets more and more popular over here since it's a fun holiday for kids but I can't figure out how black friday makes any sense when you don't celebrate Thanksgiving. I also don't understand why they hope to make "black friday" a positive brand when the only thing I associate it with is videos of Americans trampling each other to get cheap appliances.

bambax 9y ago
Amazon is indeed actively pushing "Black Friday", and Fnac is playing catchup. But I don't know if anyone in France is aware that "Black Friday" means "discount"...? Also, discount days are regulated in France (called "les soldes"); normally you can't have a discount day any time you want, you have to apply for authorization. I sell on Amazon in Europe for the first time this year (started in January); I don't do discounts but am anxious to see if sales will rise this week-end.
- simias 9y ago
  It's amusing that it means that we now effectively have a "celebration" whose only purpose and justification is buying stuff. I can't think of an equivalent.
- tdeck 9y ago
  > Also, discount days are regulated in France (called "les soldes"); normally you can't have a discount day any time you want, you have to apply for authorization. What is the rationale for that?
  - dragandj 9y ago
    I don't have an answer for this particular thing, but will remind you that any bureaucracy tends to expand. So, what's the (state's bureaucracy) rationale to put itself at a place of control? Do they even need one?

pmontra 9y ago

It didn't exist until a few years ago, much like Halloween. Then companies discovered that they are good ways to sell more stuff and suddenly we got Halloween first, then Black Friday. We're about to get our first Starbucks shop, in Milan (2019?). To be fair, it's not only marketing. Ideas move by themselves.

kenoph 9y ago

Since Amazon & others started to advertise it heavily. But it's not like people go crazy like in the US. It's more or less yet another random excuse to sell stuff. I would say that it's still mostly an online thing.

alkonaut 9y ago

In Sweden we have Black Friday now even though we don’t have thanksgiving. But given that we somehow started to carve pumpkins etc in recent years, I don’t doubt that we’ll have turkey and annoying uncles at thanksgiving within just a few years. Right now Thanksgiving is only a Black Friday sale and nothing else.

madeofpalk 9y ago

Christmas is 'celebrated' in Japan as a retail event.