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The British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA) has revealed more retailers will be boycotting Black Friday sales this year as the cost-of-living crisis hits.
The association, which works with over 6,000 independent businesses of all sizes across the UK, once again surveyed its members, which are made up of single retail outlets to small chains, large department stores and agricultural dealerships, to see if they would be taking part in the pre-Christmas sale on November 25.
However, for the second year in a row, the majority have said they would not be slashing their prices ahead of the festive season. Of those asked, 86% revealed they would not be holding the sale while almost 70% said they had not participated in it in previous years.
Andrew Goodacre, CEO of BIRA, said: “With another Black Friday on the horizon, once again many independent retailers will be choosing to ignore this event. From an indie retail perspective, Black Friday is seen as a big business, internet event. This makes it very hard for the smaller retailers to compete as they just do not have the buying power of the large retailers.
Goodacre added: “In general independent retailers do not see Black Friday as an opportunity. This has been a recurring trend over the years as the large chains and internet retailers dominate the consumer marketing.”
Mr Goodacre also urged independent stores to consider taking part in Colour Friday, which is the brainchild of Holly Tucker MBE, the founder of notonthehighstreet.
Holly Tucker said: “Last year, we launched Colour Friday to kickstart a retail revolution for Christmas shoppers. So rather than taking part in the mass consumption of Black Friday, we encouraged the nation to celebrate the colour and creativity that small businesses bring instead — and buy carefully made Christmas gifts from UK independents.”
Goodacre said: “We are supporting creative ideas such as Colour Friday and Green Friday (which has a focus on sustainability) as these are vents that focus on the smaller, local retailers. We are also advocates of Small Business Saturday which also brings the small business into the public mind. We urge the shoppers continue to support their local retailers who will still offer value in the form of quality products at good prices.”
