Some Maltese retail outlets are braced for a surge in sales today as they offer pre-Christmas slashed prices on the day known internationally as Black Friday.
The discount shopping day started in the US the day after Thanksgiving in the early 2000s and was so named because spending would surge and retailers would traditionally begin to turn a profit for the year, moving from the ‘red’ into the ‘black’. It eventually shipped across the Atlantic, where the day became increasingly popular in the UK.
The Point in Sliema is the first local shopping mall to host Black Friday. It is today offering reduced prices in most of its stores and extended opening hours – from 9.30am until 10pm.
“Black Friday abroad kicks off the Christmas shopping season and we are hoping to get this tradition rolling in Malta too.
“Through this initiative, The Point customers will benefit from discounted prices on the new collections at most of our stores,” said Ilona Debattista, marketing manager at the shopping mall.
There will also be kids’ entertainment and live bands.
Art Academy in Mosta, which includes an art shop, gallery, school and custom framing store, has deals of up to 50 per cent off on many items.
And Executive Holidays travel agency in Ħamrun is today only offering a special fly/cruise package to the East Mediterranean for a discounted price.
But Black Friday is not only for brick-and-mortar stores, as deals go live on the most popular international shopping websites such as Amazon and Asos.
Today, in fact, could become the UK’s first £1 billion online shopping day. Experian-IMRG believes internet spending will hit £1.07 billion, a 32 per cent increase on last year’s £810 million.
Visa Europe predicts that shoppers will spend €1,026.31million online on its cards today, up from €876 million last year.
However, shoppers are warned to avoid potentially dangerous counterfeit items widely available online.
The British charity Electrical Safety First said its own investigation had found highly sophisticated, dangerous counterfeits for sale through online marketplaces which were not necessarily vetted by retailers.
Its figures suggested that more than one million people found they had bought a counterfeit last year, including fakes of popular items such as NutriBullets, GhD hair straighteners and Apple accessories.
Typical tricks used to sell fake items included imagery taken from official product sites, fake official safety marks and believable pricing, with some counterfeits costing just a few pounds less than the recommended retail price to avoid arousing suspicion.
The best way to guarantee an item’s legitimacy was to buy directly from official online retailers, the charity said.
Tests found that while many items appeared sophisticated on the outside, even those with small fake internal components were at risk of exploding in up to 20 per cent of cases, leaving consumers open to serious injury or property damage.
So bargain hunters are warned: be smart, shop smart.