Black Friday 2023 is here!

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In less than an hour, it is Black Friday in South Africa.

I don’t know about you, but I can remember the 1st Black Friday in South Africa. It was madness. People were queuing in front of shops since Thursday evening already. Best of all, it was a single-chain group, Checkers, that adopted the idea in 2014 and ran with it.

Yes, running did happen. It showed later on the news channels how customers literally started to run when the doors opened, taking the whole shopfront with them.

We’ve seen that every year, more and more stores participate. No longer are it the large national stores, but even the mom-and-pop shops. In fact, I received an email from a group of ladies today that offered me a Black Friday discount for buying previous exam papers for high school pupils. Can you believe it?

I cannot help but ask myself: although most people associate Black Friday with deeply reduced goods, who benefits the most? Is it the frantic shoppers, or is it the merchants? Not to mention the financial institutions, as so many shoppers can only pay with their credit cards, which is such a bad idea given the economic situation we are currently facing.

Make no mistake, I was one of those who marked Black Friday on my shopping calendar and who stood in a long line to buy a television.

Then COVID-19 came along, and all of a sudden shopping from a store changed, as did my way of shopping. I now sit in the comfort of my home, searching and buying.
Let me share my memories of the last three years of Black Friday shopping in South Africa.

Cheap flights. One of the airlines announced domestic flights at unbelievable discounted prices. There was no way I was going to miss these flights. It would be so much easier to fly down to our holiday home and so much quicker. I could buy tickets for us for a weekend once a month for a visit to Keurboomstrand.(holiday town)

Just after midnight, I went online and started searching. Every single option I put in for the year was SOLD!

No ways! It is impossible. Later on, I could not even get onto the website anymore. Apparently it “crashed.”

Was there only one seat open on all these flights that qualified for these prices? Umh... Why did a little pop-up message come up every time with

“Book now with an alternative options at 10% discount.”

Most shoppers spend their money on mobile phones and televisions. I was one of them. This was the year I bought a television. We were down at the coast, and we wanted to buy a big-screen television. The closest shop we could buy it from was in the town of Knysna, a town 50 kilometers from us in Keurboomstrand.

Luckily, we knew what we wanted, and I had our television license with me, as without it, you cannot buy a television. I went straight to the till point while my husband went to do the “book work” for the television. By the time he got to me, I was the next customer to be served. I don’t think it took us more than thirty minutes, and we were out of there. Not only with a television but with everything, my dear husband saw that he liked walking from the appliance section to the till points.

A brand new word, “airfryer” hit South Africa in a huge way. So much that it was one of the top sellers in South Africa. Did I buy one? No, I didn't; my husband did, and he bought it from Takealot. No stress.

Okay, we waited a bit longer to get it, but the whole purchase was effortless.

I have my eyes set on one thing only!

“Here's to the ones that we got
Cheers to the wish you were here, but you're not
'Cause the drinks bring back all the memories
Of everything we've been through
Toast to the ones here today
Toast to the ones that we lost on the way
'Cause the drinks bring back all the memories
And the memories bring back, memories bring back you
There's a time that I remember, when I did not know no pain
When I believed in forever, and everything would stay the same
Now my heart feel like December when somebody say your name
'Cause I can't reach out to call you, but I know I will one day, yeah
Everybody hurts sometimes
Everybody hurts someday, ayy ayy
But everything gon' be alright
Go and raise a glass and say, ayy”

This is the lyrics of one of my favorite songs and bands, Memories from Maroon 5.

They are coming to South Africa for the Calabash Music Festival in Cape Town, and I just HAVE to get tickets tomorrow. Tickets will be discounted by 30% tomorrow, which will be great for us as we need to book flights and accommodation for the day.

Let’s hope it is not going to be the same story as with the plane tickets of 2020.

Black Friday, I am coming for you! This year, I have Steemit to keep me busy until midnight.

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Account summary:
Club100
Transfer to vesting: 1,692.000 STEEM
Normal transfer: 28 STEEM (Competition and charity)