Why is Black Friday Damaging To Small Crafts Businesses?

What is Black Friday and how did it start?

If you’re anything like me, your inbox is probably filling up with dozens or even hundreds of emails from companies trying to entice you to enjoy their Black Friday Sale. What started as a single day of madness across the Atlantic appears now to have evolved into a month-long tirade against our better judgement, tempting us to part with our hard-earned cash for the sake of an exciting ‘deal’.

While there are multiple accounts as to the origins of the term ‘Black Friday’ I think the most likely and certainly most relevant appears to date from 1950s Philadelphia. The city’s police force used the term to describe the post Thanksgiving chaos that ensued when the centre was flooded with shoppers and tourists.. the crowds and traffic meant shoplifters were able to take advantage, adding to the strain on their departments on that day. Why on earth retailers would want to jump on this bandwagon as a positive thing is beyond me! Oh yeah,,, making money!

Why does Black Fox Metalcraft not have a Black Friday Sale?

For a small family-run business like Black Fox Metalcraft who designs and manufactures all of its products in the UK, Black Friday can actually be really damaging. The constant aggressive marketing around Black Friday Sales has altered people’s expectations of what Christmas shopping is, and what represents good value. This puts pressure on small businesses and hand makers to offer discounts when actually our margins are tight all year; as a UK business is it hard enough as it is competing with mass produced products online before you factor in Black Friday.

Our weathervanes and hanging signs are sold at a fair price all year round with enough to earn a wage but little margin for profit after that. Any discounts would mean we wouldn’t make enough to earn even a small wage, plus I also think it sets the wrong tone with our customers so it’s not something we want our company to be involved in at all. The entire internet seems to go completely frantic with pages trying to push their Black Friday sales on you, meaning that small businesses not able to offer this are hidden from view. As Black Friday has grown exponentially from a single day 10 years ago through to pretty well an entire month in 2024, it’s become harder year on year.

Goods being sold at inflated prices all year round enabling impressive-looking discounts for a couple of weeks in November can give the appearance of a good deal, but I’d urge people to look beyond this. Most online companies offering Black Friday discounts are doing drop shipping, where they have no real overheads or costs and are as such able to reduce their margin, sell more and still enjoy the same profits.

What is dropshipping?

Drop shipping is where something is ordered through a website but sent directly from the wholesaler abroad. This means that the seller does not incur any costs other than admin and the marketing of a website, so if they sell twice as much stuff at half the profit, it makes negligible difference to them in terms of time and costs.

This extravaganza of excessive consumerism takes customers away from UK makers who genuinely create what they sell and cannot compete. More often than not, Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are just an exercise in putting money in the pockets of Jeff Bezos and similar Chinese counterparts, rather than back into the UK economy.

We are not helped by marketplaces like Not on the High Street who insist on promoting these increasingly excessive events; they are supposed to be championing small local handmakers and instead add to the problem by putting pressure on to reduce our prices. Our metalwork is made to order with care; it is bespoke and cannot be mass-produced in advance, so even if we wanted to take part, we are just not that sort of business and never will be, not without compromising on the quality or value that we offer for the other 11 months anyway!

Last but by no means least importantly there is the environmental impact to consider – can buying and shipping tons of cheap mass-produced items all over the world ever be anything other than detrimental?

What can I do to help crafts businesses and retailers in my area to survive?

• Black Friday deals may seem tempting, but ask yourself do I really need this? Is the deal as good as the website wants me to believe? Where is this item being manufactured and where is it shipped from? If you are purchasing online, try to buy from UK businesses where possible, even if it means spending a couple of pounds extra.
• Buy gifts from your local high street, or see if there are any craft fairs coming up nearby. Or make a day of it like people did not so long ago and spend the day in your nearest city centre, enjoying the atmosphere as we head into the festive season.
• Try to buy direct from the maker so they can avoid paying the sometimes huge commissions taken by some online marketplaces.
• Make something! There is no bigger antidote to mass consumerism than a home-made gift.

I’m not saying that mass production or buying from overseas is entirely a bad thing, clearly there can be plenty of value in both in the right situation. However, the extent that it has taken over in such a short period of time is a direct cause of the closure of many high street retailers and craft businesses in the UK, and the only way to change this is to support them. So why not try to buy a couple of gifts locally this year?

This blog was written by Black Fox Metalcraft and you can visit their website here.