Black Friday bargains disguise shoppers living beyond their means

Jewell, John 2017. Black Friday bargains disguise shoppers living beyond their means. The Western Mail

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Abstract

On the surface of it, one of the greatest oddities of modern society is that in the midst of a period of austerity and unprecedented debt we are encouraged to spend and spend without any thought for the consequences. I write this because today is Black Friday, the culmination of a week in which British bargain hunters are expected to have spent a staggering £10.1bn on Christmas goods. Throughout the course of today alone, £1.74m is expected to be spent every minute online with a survey conducted by price comparison site GoCompare suggesting that 23% of shoppers plan to fund purchases with their credit card. In comparison to the rest of Europe the British are profligate spenders. In 2016 research commissioned by RetailMeNot, the world’s largest marketplace for digital offers, found that UK citizens were, with an average household spend of £809.97, laying out 50% more on Christmas than our European neighbours.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Journalism, Media and Culture
Publisher:	Reach plc
ISSN:	0307-5214
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	17 July 2020
Last Modified:	04 May 2023 10:09
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/107231

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