Black Friday Northern Ireland: Retailers report a noticeable surge - but cost of living crisis may have had an impact

Colin Patterson, director of Smyth Patterson Ltd department store in Lisburn, said their regulars had been asking for some weeks about Black Friday deals.

Black Friday is a tradition originating in the US, where the first Friday after Thanksgiving sees widespread discounts to kickstart Christmas shopping.

"There was certainly an increased demand from customers compared with last month," Colin told the News Letter.

"Sales did feel a bit depressed compared to 2021, but in actual fact we’re not that far away from last year’s Black Friday figures.”

The cost of living crisis must be a factor, he says, plus there is no High Street Voucher scheme this year.

"We have been running black Friday offers for the past couple of weeks. It used to be one day but now it is spread out a bit more.

"But what gave us a significant boost this year was that many of our major electrical brands really improved their promotions at short notice just before Black Friday.

"And as usual we have lots of extra discounts off cookware, gifts, bedding and furniture. Most of our promotions will run through until early December."

Simon Hamilton, Chief Executive of Belfast Chamber of Commerce, also reported a busy day.“Black Friday has become an increasingly important day for Belfast’s retailers," he said.

"Retailers have reported having a busy day‘s trade with strong footfall across the city centre. Whilst we know that we are in a challenging period economically, Belfast Chamber is confident that the city’s unique mix of independent shops and big brands will stand it in good stead.”

Glyn Roberts, Chief Executive of Retail NI, said his members had reported good business."Obviously we haven't got read outs from across the board yet, but from what I picked up Belfast and some of our other major towns and city centres have been fairly busy.

"However Black Friday is not as big as it used to be because many hardworking families have been starting their Christmas shopping earlier every year now to spread the cost out.”

He appealed to shoppers in the run-up to Christmas to make a special effort to support local independent retailers.

"It is even more important this year because many of them have not recovered from the pandemic and they are facing some of the highest business costs in the UK in terms of rates and energy.”

Barclaycard Payments reported “a steady start” to Black Friday, with sales consistent with last year. As of 1pm yesterday, the credit card firm, which processes £1 of every £3 spent in the UK, said transaction volumes were 0.7% higher year-on-year.

Also yesterday, protesters gathered outside Amazon’s European headquarters in Dublin as part of an international campaign for better wages and conditions for employees.

The ‘Make Amazon Pay’ protest was led by Progressive International.