Friday is Black Friday again. The offers have been flying around for a few days now and many people can’t resist the temptation to go to the store or score a bargain online. However, it is better not to do that, warns budget coach Gerard Heintjes from Breda. “Because the chance that you will regret afterwards is huge.”
A few years ago, Black Friday was only big in America, but now we can no longer ignore the shopping frenzy here. Some people don’t get out of bed for it, but others fill their entire shopping cart as soon as a discount is sprinkled. And therein lies a danger, according to Heintjes.
“If you sleep on it for a night, most wishes come true.”
“People are tempted during Black Friday to buy something they don’t need or can’t afford,” he explains. “It always seems very nice, but if you sleep on it for a night, most wishes are blown away. We don’t allow ourselves that time because it’s now or never. And then you get bad buys.”
Heintjes recommends only going out if you have something on your wish list for at least two months. “Things that you really need or have wanted for a long time,” he says. “Make sure you wrote down what it cost at the time. If it is really cheaper now, Black Friday can be a lot of fun.”
“Clothes will go on sale anyway.”
But even then you still have to be careful, the budget coach emphasizes. “Clothing goes on sale anyway. If you wait until the end of the season, you regularly come across discounts of seventy percent. But with computers and electronics, Black Friday is often advantageous. But of course you really need it.”
Meanwhile, there is also a counter-movement. More and more companies want to avoid the Black Friday madness to reduce waste. Some therefore take a different approach on Friday:
- Dille & Kamille turns it into a ‘Green Friday’. Employees from Eindhoven, Den Bosch, Breda and Tilburg will do voluntary work in nature and the shops will remain closed.
- Matrasatelier in Son is also keeping its doors closed. Some of the employees spend the day in residential care center Berkenstaete. They want to give the elderly there a nice day.
- The Red Cross in Breda is holding a sustainable promotion on Saturday where you get a discount on clothing if you hand in two items of clothing yourself.
- And instead of selling stuff, IKEA encourages returning used stuff during ‘Bring Back Friday’. You will then receive up to half of the purchase amount back.