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Katrin How on earth did they do it?
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Ah, that's good to know! I might have a look around just out of curiosity. I've since learned that w...
Heather Athebyne How on earth did they do it?
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...though not entirely easy. I've been able to get my hands on a few strands over the years for Geor...
Katrin Hieroglyphs.
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Yes, that would sort of fit that aspect - but you can also go from bits of woods to sticks if you ar...
Bruce Hieroglyphs.
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I'm definitely jealous! Mine disapeared except for one pathetic little flower. But the first daffodi...

Black Friday?

You've probably been getting just as many mails and special offers about Black Friday as I do. Lots and lots of offers... for discounts.

Sometimes, these discounts are so high that I wonder how this can be possible. Either it means that the vendor is having a huge margin with the normal pricing, so there's still some profit left after the discount, or it means there's no profit anymore and it's more or less an advertisement stint, with the intention of getting the customers to buy other things as well (possibly believing that the prices have to be just as good in every case, which they cannot be, or else the shop won't survive).

Black Friday has become more and more of a thing in Germany in the past years, and I'm not really in love with the thing. At all. I can totally understand giving discounts on goods that have been sitting in your stock for ages, taking up space - you'd want to clear those out as a merchant. (As a customer, I totally enjoy those, by the way. If something delights me that happens to be from last season... well, I couldn't care less that it's not the current season's colour, or whatnot!)

I also get giving discounts for large amounts of the same thing (and yes, if you are planning to order a heckton of something from my shop, you can always send me a message first and ask about the price, and I'll see what I can do).

When it comes to random temporary deep discounts, though... I don't get it. When I calculate my prices, I try to go for a profit margin that makes sense for running my business, but is still fair to my customers. Sometimes, because the raw materials are expensive, or because there's a lot of costs involved in the making of the product, the things I offer do end up with a relatively high price tag - I can't help that, and it usually means that I can only have small amounts of these things made, and that there's a certain risk of me sitting on them for a long time. (Which means storage space, and capital tied up - also something that has to be considered when setting a price.) That said, my pricing policy does not leave a lot of room for price reductions. So that's one reason why I won't do something like "half off everything for Black Friday!".

As a consumer, I'm also somehow miffed when I buy something, then find out a little bit later that said thing is now offered for X percent off. Yes, I know that's just bad luck, and since the price I paid has obviously not killed me, I could just ignore it. However, it still leaves some kind of bad feeling for me - and it will mean that the next time I need to buy the thing again, and it's not urgent, I might wait until it's discounted again, or I might look for it somewhere else, now knowing that it could be available for a lower price. Maybe I'm the only one weird in that way... but I wouldn't want to cause this feeling in my own customers.

I'm also not really in love with the idea of trying to get people into a buying frenzy on a specific day, or weekend. Most of us in the western world - myself included - buy more things than we really need anyways. We're not living in a world of limitless supply, though, and getting new things all the time is not going to be sustainable forever. So having a day hyped up to make people buy, buy, buy... it doesn't seem like a really good thing to me.

What do you think? Is Black Friday a thing where you are? If so, do you enjoy it? Are you happy with the deep discounts for no apparent reason? Or would you prefer to have lower, stable prices all the time?
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Comments 4

Kareina (website) on Sonntag, 01. Dezember 2019 17:51

I have never noticed Black Friday, and had no idea that the discounts are as much as you are describing, but then, I am not a shopper, and I never read emails that look like advertising. If I need something I will buy it, as quickly and efficiently as possible, but I never go browsing to see what is out there and comparison shop.

I have never noticed Black Friday, and had no idea that the discounts are as much as you are describing, but then, I am not a shopper, and I never read emails that look like advertising. If I need something I will buy it, as quickly and efficiently as possible, but I never go browsing to see what is out there and comparison shop.
Katrin on Montag, 02. Dezember 2019 16:30

I actually do enjoy browsing for things, if I know I do need something for a specific purpose, and then try to find the best fit for me (and the purpose, obviously). The differences in detail as well as the differences in price can be surprising, but browsing or comparing can eat up a lot of time as well - so I probably wouldn't do it if the enjoyment factor wasn't there for me. (Hm. Does that make me a shopper?)

I actually do enjoy browsing for things, if I know I do need something for a specific purpose, and then try to find the best fit for me (and the purpose, obviously). The differences in detail as well as the differences in price can be surprising, but browsing or comparing can eat up a lot of time as well - so I probably wouldn't do it if the enjoyment factor wasn't there for me. (Hm. Does that make me a shopper?)
Bruce on Montag, 02. Dezember 2019 07:24

One of my regular woodworking gear suppliers (a family owned business, no shareholders or executive bonuses) has 2 'sales' a year, one of which is today - it is sufficiently popular that their web site seems to have crashed an hour into the sale and several items I was interested in are already sold out. They are the actual manufacturers of a lot of the items they offer, so they save up all the 'blemished' items and sell them online in the November(-ish) sale - basically dent & scratch but fully functional (I have several seconds and can't spot any defect or blemish). The other stuff is general, end-of-product stock from their regular suppliers who are looking to clear out the last pallets of stock and make room in the warehouse.

One of my regular woodworking gear suppliers (a family owned business, no shareholders or executive bonuses) has 2 'sales' a year, one of which is today - it is sufficiently popular that their web site seems to have crashed an hour into the sale and several items I was interested in are already sold out. They are the actual manufacturers of a lot of the items they offer, so they save up all the 'blemished' items and sell them online in the November(-ish) sale - basically dent & scratch but fully functional (I have several seconds and can't spot any defect or blemish). The other stuff is general, end-of-product stock from their regular suppliers who are looking to clear out the last pallets of stock and make room in the warehouse.
Katrin on Montag, 02. Dezember 2019 16:28

Blemished, but fully functional things, that is a kind of sales I can absolutely understand : ) and it sounds like exactly the kind of shop I would also enjoy.

Blemished, but fully functional things, that is a kind of sales I can absolutely understand : ) and it sounds like exactly the kind of shop I would also enjoy.
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