Retailers get a Black Friday bounce as shoppers return to stores in search of bargains

The first Black Friday sales largely free from the black cloud of Covid-19 saw a “real Christmassy feeling” return to towns and cities, and a significant bounce in footfall for Irish retailers.

Good weather across most of the country for much of Friday, as well as the promise of big discounts across most retail outlets, saw shoppers take to the streets in their thousands, with Duncan Graham, managing director of Retail Excellence, saying footfall was up by at least 20 per cent compared to last year.

“We have seen a very good start to the sales weekend and it is something we have really missed over the last two years. In 2020 retail was in lockdown for much of the Christmas period, while last year the Omicron variant of Covid had just emerged, so this is something we have really missed over the last two years,” Mr Graham said.

He noted that while members of the retail umbrella group had told him online sales were up, the bounce was “muted”, with the big numbers returning to bricks-and-mortar shops.

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“The real growth is in-store,” he said. “People have been happy to get out of their houses and into the shops and it all feels a lot better.”

He acknowledged that holding Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales had been a challenge for many small and independent retailers and there had been “a little bit of pushback” against the sale window. “Some have held back because of the impact it would have on their margins, while others have been more selective with their discounts and that is not a surprise when you see how hard all retailers have been hit by rising energy prices.”

Arnold Dillon of Retail Ireland said that the start of the Black Friday sales period had been “a very positive story, at least anecdotally”.

“With Covid having been such a feature over the last two years, there seems to be a real determination out there to really mark this year and celebrate with friends and family now that the Covid cloud has lifted. Even though last year retail wasn’t in lockdown, there was a massive increase in anxiety levels last Christmas because of the appearance of the Omicron variant.”

Some retailers, however, have both financial and ethical issues with a marketing concept imported from the US via the UK less than 10 years ago.

Sharon Griffin runs a boutique in Clifden called Ohh! By Gum and said she had turned her back on Black Friday because it “goes against why I started [the shop]”.

She said she had been motivated to open the shop to “offer our community and visitors here in Connemara and online the choice to buy a vast selection of organic, recycled and durable items of clothing that are kind to them as well as the planet”.

She also wanted to “provide year-round employment to a small team of talented people in a remote part of the country that relies on seasonal tourism and where many businesses have to close in the winter”.

She said that taking part in the sale would see her “reducing margins so drastically, [which] is completely unsustainable. Encouraging mass consumerism is unethical and it is actually sickening to think that so many purchases will end up in landfill before the next Black Friday comes along – such waste.”