Retail business activity in the city of Lusaka today November 29, 2019 recorded escalated activity and was boosted up as selected stores and supermarkets which have placed from 50 to about 75% discounts and below on selected items to live up to the “Black Friday” sales bonanza.
Black Friday is a name given to the shopping day after Thanksgiving in the United States of America which falls on 28th November this year. Americans originally called it Black Friday because the volume of shoppers created traffic accidents and violence while shopping for items placed on heavy discounts.
Zambian retailers had from about 2010 also adopted Black Friday as a shopping holiday which sees buyers purchase selected items at a heavily discounted prices of 50% or more off depending on the type of product.
A check by the Zambian Business Times –ZBT crew at Manda Hill Shopping Mall found a crowd of people at the mall waiting to buy items selected for discounts in different stores. Some shoppers even reached the mall as early as 04hrs in them morning which resulted in congestion as consumers scrambled to buy items from the different stores at cheaper prices. Traffic was also jammed in most streets.
At other shopping centers, reports of theft and violence have been reported as shop owners could not control individuals who were squeezing themselves to enter the stoles resulting in some stores being vandalized and looted.
While the long queues and scramble can be interpreted in different ways, some consumers talked to by ZBT at the shopping centers have stated that despite the day being busy, Black Friday has advantaged most individuals to getting items at a cheaper in view of the current hardships the economy is generally going through.
Others have noticed lack of security in most stores which resulted to theft among individuals as places where crowded hence urged shop owners to next year put in place security and other crowd control measures if such promotions are to be put in place smoothly and benefit more customers.
According to world leading online retailer Amazon, Black Friday is also observed in 14 other markets worldwide which include, the United State, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Australia, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, the UAE, India, Singapore, with some African countries like South Africa and Zambia now being active participants.
