Today's Friday. The so-called Black Friday.

Technically, it should just be a day like any other - but for years now, this day has been promoted to a day of wild consumerism, with deep discounts on many things. It's also being extended by quite a lot of companies or shops, mostly online shops, to a whole week, or at least several days.

I'll freely admit that in general I am happy, too, to get things for a reduced price. As a vendor myself, I also know that sometimes things have overstayed their welcome in your stock and should go, such as leftover bits or slightly damaged goods, and reducing their price is a good way to make everyone happy. I can absolutely get that, and I enjoy shopping "second-grade" or leftover stuff.

However, the price that is paid for the reduced prices on Black Friday? In most cases, I'd consider that it's too high. Someone, somewhere, has to pay for the discount, after all. Consider this: If a shop is able to give a discount of 50% on their goods, this means that either the shop owner will not make any profit anymore, or that the profit margin of the normal price is significantly more than 50%, or that the "normal price" never truly existed, but is just listed to make the discounted price more attractive. The first I'd consider kind of unfair, and it's not a sustainable strategy for the shop owner. In the third case, I don't really appreciate being lied to concerning the "normal" price. Both these do not exactly make me want to buy things at such a company, actually.

Selling a lot of things with a lower profit margin will generate profits, too, so I can see the appeal of catching people on a spending spree and selling them lots of stuff. For small vendors with limited stock and limited reach, that is not an option, though. So they might cut down on their profits hoping to gain new customers that will come back later.

Whatever is the case - joining in on the Black Friday madness means there has to be discounting, extra labelling, and advertisements. Local stationary shops are partly also joining in, and that means printed labels and printed ads and posters, also something with a rather significant cost and generating a good bit of waste, too.

So here we are, in a world racked by a pandemic, with a climate crisis on our hands that gets ignored by politicians everywhere; it's clear that the normal stationary shops that charge fair prices need our money to survive, and it's also clear that we need to consume less and repair and re-use more, unless we want this planet to become uninhabitable in the near future.

If you're reading this blog regularly, you have probably not expected me to join in on the Black Friday offers stuff - and no, I am not doing it. I try to set my prices so they are fair, and those who make things for me are paid a fair price as well. That in turn means that my possibilities of giving a discount are limited, and a deep discount would be impossible if I don't want to lose money.

So business will go on as usual here today, and the rest of the week. I will not do any more shopping than I would usually do on a week in November, and there will be no extra discounts in my own shop. I've seen quite a lot of people, and some shops, say outright that they won't do Black Friday, due to similar reasons - and I hope that this will spread, and eventually that day of discounts will be something of the past.