Asda Avoiding Black Friday Sales Chaos Due to ‘Shopper Fatigue’

Black Friday is a US tradition which involves heavily discounted items and has slowly become an integral shopping event around the world. Two years ago, UK supermarket Asda decided to launch their own Black Friday event which ended in absolute anarchy. When the doors opened, shoppers began scuffling, and desperately trying to pick up items at a discounted price. The nation’s behavior was appalling and went against the civilized British stereotype.

With Black Friday once again approaching, Asda’s chief executive, Andy Clarke told the BBC that the company will not offer any discount events:

“The decision to step away from Black Friday is not about the event itself,”

“Over the last two years we’ve developed an organised, well-executed plan, but this year customers have told us loud and clear that they don’t want to be held hostage to a day or two of sales.”

This seems like a PR way of saying they don’t want to deal with customers fighting between themselves, and tearing the store apart. It’s important to remember, staff had to call the police during Asda’s original Black Friday promotion. I applaud Asda for doing this and setting an example, but I highly doubt other stores will follow suit. Clearly, Black Friday is a massive earner for supermarkets, and retail chains.