Black Friday is famous for crowds of bargain-hunters jostling to secure the best cut-price items. But at Tesco Extra in Surrey Quays, south-east London, things started rather more sedately on a cold and misty November morning.
Staff working at the store, one of more than 700 Tesco branches holding Black Friday sales across the UK, opened the doors at 5am, an hour earlier than usual. They easily outnumbered the seven people waiting outside.
Brendan Boshell, a 26-year-old worker at a small startup, who was first in the very short queue, was hoping to snap up a bargain Xbox One games console.
“I’m quite surprised I’m the only one,” he said, because he had read about fights for products in previous years. In the past, store staff have had to call in police to break up brawls during Black Friday sales.
Michael, a 24-year-old student, said he was attending the sales for the first time because he wanted to buy a TV – 50-inch if possible – but had struggled to find good deals online.
“I’d like a name-brand TV – something a bit known,” he said, waiting for the store to open.
Dash Sivarasa, 31, and Fathema Malika, 21, had done their homework before they arrived. The couple were looking for a 40-inch Sharp HD TV, which they expected to snap up for £179 – a saving of £100.
“You can order it online, but I don’t know how that works on Black Friday,” said Sivarasa. “You can order – but will you get it?”
In the end, Sivarasa and Malika changed their mind when they saw the products on offer, choosing the Toshiba 4K model. “It’s better, isn’t it?” said Sivarasa, before heading to the tills.
Three hours later, down the road at Lidl in Peckham, there was more activity. The supermarket opened at 8am, but the earliest arrivals were rewarded with tickets for a meagre supply of cheap televisions awarded to the first 10 people waiting at the door an hour before.
On Oxford Street, the mood was little different to any other day in the run-up to Christmas. Audrey and Angélique, both 22, said their gift shopping was going well, but added that the shops were not exactly full of deals.
At Braehead shopping centre on the south bank of the River Clyde in Renfrewshire, it was hard to escape the gaudy signs offering 25%, 50% and even 70% off full-price stock.
Colin Campbell was waiting patiently outside Next while his wife and daughter got on with their clothes shopping. “It’s definitely busier than usual,” he said. “I had trouble parking the car.”
He is not convinced about Black Friday deals: “I think it’s all a scam. They put the prices up beforehand and then they put them down again.”
Leanne Cole was happy with a pair of Adidas trainers reduced by £40 from Sports Direct, and was also looking for a bargain phone. With Christmas in mind, she planned to sneak off to do some shopping while her two children played on the Santa train in the middle of the centre with their grandmother.
Cole said she preferred the physical shopping experience. “I still like to do it the old way. I don’t like giving my details to these websites and I don’t trust all the special offers. But I think there are some really good deals in the shops today,” she said.
