In front of Galeries Lafayette already decked out in their Christmas finery, Marie Bois explains that she loses 200 euros a month in purchasing power, particularly “due to (increased) expenses, such as heating.”
The 24-year-old, a window dresser in a work-study regime, intends to “take advantage of the promotions” on Friday, November 25 to make her end-of-year gifts.
“The intention to participate in Black Friday is comparable to that of last year (…) and what motivates this participation is the crisis,” explains Nadine Porge, deputy director of Harris Interactive’s Services department, to AFP.
Dealers rub their hands
According to a study by the institute published on Thursday and related to cybershoppers, 70% will jump on the good deals on Black Friday and 55% of them will do so for “purchasing power-related reasons.”
Now Black Friday can last more than a week, not just one Friday.
Despite inflation, dealers are already rubbing their hands together, convinced they are making money.
“We are in a particular year with an even more striking bargain search, in a context of declining purchasing power,” judges Hugo Larricq, director of commerce at Cdiscount, an online commerce site that expects 10 million visitors on Friday alone. .
In 2021, Fnac-Darty had registered more than 50 million visits online and in stores during Black Friday, “the biggest peak of the year”, according to Simon Ilardi, director of commercial animation for the group.
“In 2016 in France, (…) Black Friday capitalized as much as Christmas in 2018, and then it became stronger than Christmas,” Olympe Krima, a consultant at the GFK research institute, confirmed Thursday during a conference press.
“No green promotions”
The president of the federation of electronic commerce and distance selling (Fevad), François Momboisse, however, tempered these enthusiasms. With “enormous purchasing power restrictions, (…) the situation remains tense, very tense, much more than it has been in the last ten years,” he tempers.
The study carried out by Harris Interactive tends to the same conclusion: “More than one in three French people plan to spend less than in 2021 on Christmas purchases”, with an average budget of 404 euros (gifts and preparations).
However, distributors are doing everything possible to seduce the refractory, even going so far as to highlight second-hand, second-hand or “Made in France” products, a way of also responding to criticism from environmental defense associations. environment about this encounter of excessive consumption
“There are no green promotions!”, However, protests Tancrède Girard, a member of the Network of Reemployment Actors of Ile-de-France (REFER), who describes the social and environmental impact of Black Friday as “disastrous”.
green friday
“Pollution”, “consumption of resources”, “forced labor”: as a reaction to the event, a group of associations, including Emmaüs, created Green Friday, a day to raise awareness about responsible consumption and of which Mr. Girard is a founding member.
Extinction Rebellion activist, “Crocodile” (who does not want to give his identity) assures that he is not “there to stigmatize people and especially the poorest” and insists: “There are other ways of consuming and living together!”
Tancrède Girard agrees: you can “buy only if necessary, repair or reuse, favor second hand” on dedicated circuits…
In front of the bright entrance to Galeries Lafayette, Marie Bois puts her Black Friday purchases into perspective: “It’s not to consume, but to make purchases that she would do no matter what,” she explains.
Freddy Bara, 29, a shopkeeper at this department store, points out that “yes, of course, there is the issue of overconsumption, but it generates employment…”. Then he concludes by joking: “Anyway, I, Black Friday, I’m not going to do it, I’m going to suffer it.”
Source: BFM TV
