No Black Friday this year
Nine out of 10 Brits will be avoiding the shops this Black Friday with stress, hyperactive children and annoying staff among the most common reasons for dodging the high street.
The average Brit spends two and a half hours a week shopping online and many now avoid physical stores at all costs. In a study of 2,000 people by money-saving marketplace Flubit.com, more than one in five (21 per cent) said too many children running around stores was one of their biggest shopping bugbears. A further 20 per cent claimed shopping is too stressful, while 12 per cent said they find overfriendly staff annoying.
While longs queues were the number one deterrent for avoiding shops, the possibility of having awkward encounters with people you know also featured in the top ten reasons, with one in ten citing this as one of their biggest shopping annoyances.
The third most common reason for avoiding the high street was the madness that comes with sales. This weekend, most brands will be dropping their prices to take advantage of Black Friday. The day has traditionally seen hordes of shoppers crowd into high-street stores for the biggest discounts on electronics and fashion products, but 2015 saw a break in the trend, with a drop in footfall as the majority of consumers took to the internet to cash in on deals.
According to Flubit.com’s research, only 9 per cent of consumers say they will visit stores this weekend, with 29 per cent claiming they will do all of their sale-hunting online to avoid the crowds.
Tia Saunders, spokesperson for Flubit.com, said: “Consumers are clearly keen to avoid the Black Friday madness that we’ve seen in previous years, with our research suggesting most will be cashing in on deals from the comfort of their own home.
“With retailers now embracing Black Friday in their online operations, shoppers will have unprecedented choice and access to deals throughout the day. At Flubit.com, we’ll be offering 28 days of exclusive deals to celebrate Black Friday, meaning our customers can grab themselves a bargain without having to face the chaos of the high street!”
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