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Showing posts from November, 2014

Black Friday participation in the UK: What's the problem?

[Short link to this article if you need it - http://goo.gl/mR41j2 - or retweet me ] I've seen a few posts on social media today along these lines: Dear Wikipedia, Black Friday is NOT observed by the UK. Thanksgiving means nothing here - our Civil War was 1642-51. pic.twitter.com/iHLMC3eqnP — Barnaby Edwards (@BarnabyEdwards) November 28, 2014 The UK reference in that wikipedia entry has since been removed  at the time of writing. I don't get why people are so upset about it. While the Black Friday sales happen to be next to the US "Thanksgiving" it is on a different day, and it is a different event. No-one's expecting British people to celebrate Thanksgiving as some sort of bizarre prerequisite ritual to a day of sales. The facts are: UK retailers (albeit initially lead by the US ones) ARE participating in an event they are referring to as "Black Friday" coincident with the US one. People in the UK are watching out for special deals as a resu