Black Friday Big Savings
I don’t generally go for these online shopping fads but last year I did very well with electronics and homeware savings at the Albany Mega Centre on Black Friday. This year I’m all prepared to make the big savings again. Bring on Friday 29 November.
I’ve always been the type to fight against commercialisation. My wife, Phyllis, and I avoid Valentine’s Day and don’t encourage the kids to do too much for Mother’s and Father’s Days. I feel these ‘theme days’ are just great marketing gimmicks designed to sell more products.
For a few years I’ve been watching Black Friday, Cyber Monday and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Singles Day take on more prominence. Largely it’s been an online phenomena but in recent years we’ve seen the physical stores get into the act as well.
It was by chance last year that I had the day off work on Black Friday and popped into the Albany Mega Centre. It was surprisingly busy and it didn’t immediately dawn on me why. As I hit the carpark, the promotional material made it abundantly clear. At first I tried to pretend it wasn’t happening but the size of the discounts were very hard to ignore. The savings, across almost every store, were significant and I wasn’t the only one to notice them.
With these sorts of discounts you look for the big ticket items. I started in Noel Leeming. The wall-to-wall televisions caught my eye. I wandering around looking at the amazing options, many with up to 30% off. I found an Panasonic 60-inch curved screen TV for the lounge. We’ve talked about replacing the one we have for a while and the big savings made today a great day to final make the purchase. The other great deal I found was the latest Nespresso coffee machine with 20% off. I hadn’t started thinking about Christmas shopping yet but this seemed like the perfect gift for Phyllis. She loves her coffee and she’ll love me almost as much as George Clooney when I give her this!
I walked up from Noel Leeming to Briscoes. They have great prices at the best of times but with a sale like this you’d be stupid not to have a look. I found a new Phillips electric shaver for me, something I’d thought about for a while but haven’t got around to buying. I also found a Soda System machine for the house. Again this was something that Phyllis and I had talked about a few times but just hadn’t done it. A big reduction in price made it easy to take action today.
I think I’m done, having spent a lot of money already, so I start walking towards the car. In the window of Lighting Direct I see an amazing Iron Man wall light. My eight-year old is obsessed with superheroes and would love this. I think about it for a bit but then realise, that at Black Friday prices, this is too good an opportunity to pass up. My son was delighted when I gave it to him that night and he couldn’t believe he was getting something this good when it wasn’t his birthday!
Phyllis thought I’d gone crazy when she got home from work that night. “How much did you spend she asked?” somewhat nervous about the answer I would give her. But once I talked through the savings, she could see that it was perfect opportunity to get those big ticket electronic and homeware items we’d previously talked about.
This year, we’ve been holding off on a few big purchases waiting for the Black Friday sales in late November. We’ve even thought through the big Christmas gifts we want to buy. Phyllis and I are both taking the day off work and we’ll be down at the Mega Centre, making the most of the big savings. Blatant commercialism or not, we know a good thing when we see it.