Nicola’s Notes: #GoShopping!

Nicola Mawson, IOL Business Editor. Picture: Matthews Baloyi

Nicola Mawson, IOL Business Editor. Picture: Matthews Baloyi

Published Nov 25, 2016

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It’s #BlackFriday, and every retailer out there is taking full advantage of it. Offering deals that will blow your mind.

Read also: SA stores gear up for #BlackFriday rush

Although, a sarcastic Facebook friend of mine asked why they don’t offer great deals on something people will actually want...

Nonetheless, it’s a great day to go shopping. Because everything is discounted. That lounge suite you were eyeing but couldn’t quite afford? The tablet your kid was nagging you for? It’s all on sale.

So, why are you sitting here reading my column? Go shop!

Fill the retailers’ tills with your hard-earned money!

Oh yes, about that.

I’ve also been watching my grocery bill tick up. And my electricity bill. And pretty much everything else I pay. Inflation is 6.4 percent – no, it feels like double that.

And retailers are feeling it, too. When you look at their results, they boast of revenue growing; except then they give you a euphemistic statement about “price movement”.

Loosely translated, that’s inflation. What that equates to, is that the only reason revenue grew is because the price tag grew. In many instances, when you “normalise” for inflation, revenue is going backwards.

And that means people are spending less.

So, I really cannot blame CEOs for jumping on the #BlackFriday bandwagon in a bid to move stock. If they sell you something for less than what they actually paid for it, they still win.

It’s called a loss leader.

Because you are more than likely to buy other items, items that are marked up. Items that will boost the profit margin.

All is fair in love and war, right?

That’s capitalism.

And I have no problem with that. (Caveat: I do believe in a free market, but I have a rather serious issue with some of its less-than-desirable outcomes, such as slave wages.)

My biggest issue with #BlackFriday is the same issue I have with Halloween.

Adopted practices

Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving in the US – apparently, has been marked as the opening of the festive season spending spree, and dates back to 1932.

That’s just a few years after the start of the Great Depression. Coincidence? I think not.

It seems to me that US retailers went “hey, everyone is all happy, let’s get them to spend some money”.

Translate that into South African terms, where everyone is counting every cent, and trying to turn it into a rand (a trick my mom could do that I still battle to make happen).

And South African retailers went: “This Black Friday concept... let’s adopt that.”

After all, they’ve already taken up Halloween. I’m old enough - send your jokes about my age privately, please - to remember an era when we didn’t do Halloween.

Nope. We did not send our kids out dressed up as pumpkins, witches, ET, ghosts…

(As an aside, many parents would probably have preferred if we could time travel 20 years back and then make Halloween a thing, because then it would have been safer.)

Basically, we’ve adopted a US tradition to boost sales. Frankly, we’ve adopted a bunch of them.

So, here’s my question.

Why don’t we have days that South Africans can relate to?

I’m not saying we should turn the Day of Remembrance into a Christmas spending spree. I have the same disdain for that as I do for Heritage Day becoming #BraaiDay.

What I’m arguing for is that we, as proud South Africans, should stop adopting whatever Father America does, and celebrate our own heritage.

We have so much to be proud of in this country.

Imagine a Kruger National Park Day, when every South African can get in free. Sure, the Kruger gives discount to us with local IDs. Now, take that further. Let us in for free.

We’ll flock there, and then spend money: money on lunch, fridge magnets, the sunscreen we forgot...

That, to me, sounds so much better than #BlackFriday.

We need a country-wide, cohesive marketing strategy that encompasses our pride. And boosts the economy.

Ideas, as always, are welcome.

* Nicola Mawson is the online editor of Business Report. Follow her on Twitter @NicolaMawson or Business Report @busrep.

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