Dear God make it stop!

[Bearbonesnorm]

Black Friday or should that be plural? Is it only me that's sick to death of constant emails extolling the virtues of buying poor show I don't need for 10% less than I could have bought it for another time?

[Ian]

Not just you...

In the race to the bottom, being the cheapest is all that counts...

[Moder-dye]

Been driving me mad too. I don't want anything, but if I did it's even worse being teased a week before pay day when I'm at my most brassic

[whitestone]

About the only offer I was possibly interested in was one I hadn't signed up to! In fact I don't think they even have a newsletter/mailing list, it was just a comment in the Bargain Alert thread that led me to it.

[GregMay]

Every email I get that is unsolicited advertising gets un-subscribed to the list - then blocked. Any day of the week. It was the constant badgering of CRC "sales" that started me on this.

I've only got 3 emails today due to this - all of them from actual real people.

I've been quite aggressive in unfollowing/muting people on other social media channels to reduce any noise to make it annoying this year. But I also do that for people in general. Result is I have a massive confirmation bias in my social feed, but that's fine with me.

On top of that, I've spent £0 today and intend to spend no more.

[Richard G]

I've spent upwards of a grand today on various bits. I generally make a wishlist throughout the year and buy a whole shitload of stuff today / boxing day / January.

Does take being more patient than I normally am though. :D

[Lawmanmx]

i don't normaly bend to sales cack But, ive been after some SStar plastic pedals for a while and their 30% off swung it for me, its not that im 'Tight' im just careful

[Bearbonesnorm]

On top of that, I've spent £0 today and intend to spend no more.

[Mariner]

Read this then go out and ride your bike - the trails are empty.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... erist-hell

[SRS]

Not just you...

In the race to the bottom, being the cheapest is all that counts...

Unfortunately it's not just confined to Black Friday or any other sales period. So much is now free, virtually free or not worth anything like it used to be. When you can have anything, at anytime, anywhere, is it worth anything? I don't really care for the phrase 'first-world problem', but at this moment it seems particularly apposite.

[atk]

On top of that, I've spent £0 today and intend to spend no more.

I disagree with this. I'm not in favour of mass consumption and having had 0 advertising emails today, instead seeing innumerable posts from people (who I generally don't expect to get caught up in the "madness") complaining/boycotting/moaning about the whole thing, maybe I'm just a little grumpy... but, it's Friday, it's probably payday, go out and support the same local business you normally would.

Your local bike shop, beer shop, coop, cafe etc. isn't going to give a sub standard about shovelling bargains down your throat and surely depriving them of business only helps the big bastard companies, who will continue pumping out all their promotional poor show...

[ianfitz]

Every email I get that is unsolicited advertising gets un-subscribed to the list - then blocked. Any day of the week. It was the constant badgering of CRC "sales" that started me on this.

I've only got 3 emails today due to this - all of them from actual real people.

I've been quite aggressive in unfollowing/muting people on other social media channels to reduce any noise to make it annoying this year. But I also do that for people in general. Result is I have a massive confirmation bias in my social feed, but that's fine with me.

On top of that, I've spent £0 today and intend to spend no more.

I've been unsubscribing a lot today too

I did spend £2 odd on a nice pork sandwich from the butcher near work though. I also may need to buy some beer later...

[benp1]

Hmmm, there i was waiting for a discount code for a meths stove

[whitestone]

Actually the only ones I've been remotely interested in have been the Enlightened Equipment and Borah Gear reductions. Neither would appear to be "big business", Borah Gear appear to be genuine cottage industry level. My wife kiboshed any EE purchase "You don't need another sleeping bag/quilt!" (probably true TBH, definitely an "I'd like" rather than "I need"). The BG interest is being served by a different channel.

There was a programme or programmes with Hugh Fernley-Whitter-on a while ago about waste and looking at clothes. Some people were horrified if they were wearing anything older than a year and threw away clothes that they had worn once or not at all. Hmm, the Mountain Equipment fleece that is currently on the back of my chair at work is around 20 years old (probably a year or two older than that) and is still fine, the cuffs aren't even beginning to fray. Why would I need another?

[Bearbonesnorm]

Hmmm, there i was waiting for a discount code for a meths stove

I do sometimes but I do it when I'm in good mood, feel like spreading the love ... or need a tyre

[HaYWiRe]

A few weeks ago when I started getting serious with my minimalism purge I cut out alot of unwanted advertising. If I dont need it, I dont care if its now cheaper, not buying at saves the most money.

I haven't done a bad job....only emails I get now are newsletters from the BB, faraway, BP.com and Alpkit (I like the daring deeds and they only show new products in actually interested in)
Then its just bank statements, doctors letters and DiabetesUk research papers, THATS IT!

Everything else is either unsubscribed or blocked, so much less mental clutter.

As for in store sales....well I'm too antisocial to get drawn into those anyway


My own business has a very small sale on, but we don't spam or have huge flashy adds to drive business, we don't need to. If people want patches they already know where to go, our sale just bundles our products into something neater for a gift. annoying people is bad for business

[Bearbonesnorm]

Hmm, the Mountain Equipment fleece that is currently on the back of my chair at work is around 20 years old (probably a year or two older than that) and is still fine, the cuffs aren't even beginning to fray. Why would I need another?

With you there Bob. The jacket I've got on today must be about 15 years old, I recall it came from Decathlon as a second and cost a fiver. It's a bit battered/dirty/resin covered/burnt but it still functions okay as a jacket.

go out and support the same local business you normally would.

Amen brother.

[GregMay]

On top of that, I've spent £0 today and intend to spend no more.

I disagree with this. I'm not in favour of mass consumption and having had 0 advertising emails today, instead seeing innumerable posts from people (who I generally don't expect to get caught up in the "madness") complaining/boycotting/moaning about the whole thing, maybe I'm just a little grumpy... but, it's Friday, it's probably payday, go out and support the same local business you normally would.

Your local bike shop, beer shop, coop, cafe etc. isn't going to give a sub standard about shovelling bargains down your throat and surely depriving them of business only helps the big bastard companies, who will continue pumping out all their promotional poor show...

Oddly not payday here. Honestly, not really an issue either. If I wanted to spend £300 on crap, I'd just spend it. That is why I have credit cards.

I don't see why it makes a difference what day I spend my money on though just because somewhere in the US people decided to create a fuss about trying to sell crap to generate income to buy more crap to sell to people during the festive buying and fattening season. I do shop locally (have done more so since the flooding in the valley). I do support my not so local LBS and LBS (haven't used CRC or Wiggle in over 5 years for bike kit). But spending money in some smaller shops which do feel more and more compelled to cut prices due to the BS that is black Friday is even more pointless when I could spend full price on any other given day giving them a better cut.

I worked retail for nearly 9 years total before I got a "grown up" job as my mother likes to call it (if you know me, and what I do, you're probably laughing now). Every time a sale came round in a competitor we rushed to cut the arse out of our prices to compete. It doesn't help. It never did. But,I spent this time watching people foam at the mouth over sales and the next thing they need. Then they demand that you cut the prices even further. Lets call it straight - need vs want. Do we need any of the crap we buy? Probably not. Like actually need to live. Do you want it, sure. And that is ok. I really don't care if people spend money to be savy, or whatever, on this randomly allocated sale day. But really, do you need half the things you're probably going to jizz money over today?

I've spent today giving things I own away to people who want it. Outdoor kit I've been given on test. Books. Other things. Made me feel a bit happier inside.

Oh and I have spent money - I donated £100 to a charity: http://m3project256.tumblr.com/

[GregMay]

A few weeks ago when I started getting serious with my minimalism purge I cut out a lot of unwanted advertising. If I dont need it, I dont care if its now cheaper, not buying at saves the most money.

Good move - this combined with an attempt at Zero Inbox has been two of the main drives to keep my "wanting" and brain load sane.

[HaYWiRe]

There was a programme or programmes with Hugh Fernley-Whitter-on a while ago about waste and looking at clothes. Some people were horrified if they were wearing anything older than a year and threw away clothes that they had worn once or not at all. Hmm, the Mountain Equipment fleece that is currently on the back of my chair at work is around 20 years old (probably a year or two older than that) and is still fine, the cuffs aren't even beginning to fray. Why would I need another?

I'll be honest, I dont think I own anything over 2 years old, and lately I have been replacing after a year. But I tend to be quite hard on my clothes and develops favourites quickly, my jeans dont last more than 18 months without being relegated to DIY duty, but they have been worn every other day for 18 months, no waste there, they served and died.

This is why I donated 95% of my clothes, I may now replace more often but EVERY piece gets its wear non stop

[GregMay]

Hmm, the Mountain Equipment fleece that is currently on the back of my chair at work is around 20 years old (probably a year or two older than that) and is still fine, the cuffs aren't even beginning to fray. Why would I need another?

With you there Bob. The jacket I've got on today must be about 15 years old, I recall it came from Decathlon as a second and cost a fiver. It's a bit battered/dirty/resin covered/burnt but it still functions okay as a jacket.

go out and support the same local business you normally would.

Amen brother.

Went running last night in a 15 year old Patagonia windproof. Wearing a pair of similar aged Patagonia trousers.

Pay decent money once - for something that lasts - use it. If you kill it through use, excellent, it's a happy garment/thing/puppy.

[Cheeky Monkey]

On the slight flipside to this I was reading MBR (yeah, yeah, all the STWers can hate me ) this morning. They mentioned a new Intense (some FS, 29r, name escapes me). It was (IIRC) £8,700 JUst utterly bonkers.

I agree to some extent the frenzy of BF is pretty unpleasant (in a very first-world-problem way) but it also provides the opportunity for some folk to pick up gear at a price that represents better "value" e.g. the Snowyside bivi I got from Borah last year. So being *too* sniffy about it is almost equivalent to being one of the punters battling it out at Asda for a cheap flat screen, but at the other end of the spectrum

Hey ho, it's just the bloody internet

[whitestone]

I think Black Friday is the US equivalent of our Boxing Day, it's the day after Thanksgiving which is bigger in the States as a festive time than Xmas. Not sure why we or anyone else have to follow it. Before you know it there'll be some random Sunday set aside by a business with a vested interest for Mothers or Fathers

To HayWire: I'm pretty tough on trousers, mainly due to my legs being the wrong shape for most so they wear out around the thighs. The jacket I mention has been used for climbing and walking as well as just something to keep the chill off on the way to work. I reckon I've worn it at least 100 days a year since I've had it.

[atk]

It's not payday here either and I'm not advocating (or getting involved in) mindless spending because it's a particular day. I just wonder how well a blanket boycott works, if a small business can't afford to/have principles and don't cut prices but lose out on regular customers, are they going to look at the numbers next year and thing "sub standard, we better have a sale this year" than going "we did just fine, feck those bastard corporations!"...

I dunno. I bought some food and a beer at lunch. The beer was awful, would not beer again.

[Cheeky Monkey]

Pay decent money once

That's not true though, is it?

Take LIdl and Aldi as an example, by having a different business-model they can sell equivalently "good" stuff but at a lesser price than other supermarkets. What I mean is, "decent money" does not necessarily equal decent quality and certainly not "value for money".

I've got some ancient gear that is still going strong (and some that's not). How well it's doing is irrelevant to the price I bought it for, so far as I can tell. My oldest and favourite-est fleece is some black ME thing that I bought on a trip to the Lakes when I had a week between jobs and house moves. I bought it because I'd forgotten one and just picked up whatever was on sale in (IIRC) Needlesport. £20 and 18 year later it's still going strong despite my ever expanding physique giving it a whole new fit