It is a phenomenon that has flown across the pond but does not sit well in our waters. Black Friday! It is a concept developed from a place of greed, consumerism and trickery (pricing starts off artificially high and then gets slashed to a price equal to what it should have been originally). It is a movement hard not to be dragged into and if we are honest, we have fallen ill to its ways as a consumer in the past. However, as a shop, we have never participated. There is a whole host of reasons why, a handful being:
- Advocating slow fashion. Choose well, buy less.
- Pricing our items fairly from the get-go (meaning we don’t have the ability to slash prices)
- Paying our staff the Living Wage (the majority of BF participants do not, as they are trying to cut costs)
- Respecting our customers' loyalty. Having huge sales can be extremely unfair to those who shop with us year-round and we really care about.
- Investing in creating a lovely environment to shop in.
- Wanting to maintain a calm, considered shopping environment for our customers. Not a manic atmosphere full of fazed people.
- Being considerate of other independent shops, all the hard work we know they invest and therefore not wanting to undercut them.
But in every Black Friday there is a silver lining. So, what we are doing this year which we are really excited about is:
- Donating 10% of all takings from Frontiers Man and Woman stores over the weekend (Friday 29th Nov to Sunday 1st Dec) to CHAS – the Children’s Hospices Across Scotland. Check out all their good work here
- Having plentiful amounts of bubbly and little treats floating around.
- Having some great music, sceptical dance moves and time to spend with you (if needed) to help you find something you will cherish.
So hey you, come on down get some lovely new threads and support a great charity. It is the best of all worlds.