Black Friday has hit the UK... and the Brits are confused. What was once a small sale here or there in London the Friday after Thanksgiving in years past, has now become a full out, manic, mad dash for those trying to get a "gorgeous" deal.
Apparently, this is not how it has always been here, but on Friday during lunch, I headed out to one of Canary Wharf's shopping centers hoping to buy something for my new little nephew who I'll meet on Monday. I arrived at the Gap to a huge 50% off today sign and a line of about 12 people waiting to get into the store. Yes, they had so many people in the store there was a line to get in. So I waited in the queue like a good member of British society.
Once I was in, I rummaged through the piles of mess (that had already been picked through before me) to find what I wanted. I heard a fight between a customer and a sales associate to the left of me; a woman with her arms piled high in clothes to the left. Ahhh, it felt like America.
After finding what I wanted, I made a mad dash to the checkout where 30 people had already made the same mad dash in front of me; the line now snaked around through the store. Nothing like a little, last-minute line shopping while you wait (the "I'm still in line, but my eyes are scouring around me in case I still see anything within an arms reach that I want" move). Then I pushed my way out of the store and back into the open air breathing a sigh of relief that I'd made it out alive.
Back in the office, I retold my story and someone said, "Well isn't the Gap cheaper in the states anyway? You are going there next week; you should've just bought it there."
But there's nothing like a "good deal".
See the UK craziness here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmith/the-best-of-the-internets-reaction-to-british-black-friday-c (The article description as told from a Brit says it all: It was bad enough when America gave us Kim Kardashian.)
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