We’re so, so sorry and apologize. I wouldn’t wish Black Friday on my worst enemy.
CNN live has been cutting to mob scenes in Britain’s stores all morning. They don’t celebrate Thanksgiving holiday but they got stuck with the insanity of Black Friday.
All I can say is, with time this day will pass. 
Much like when you’re constipated, the relief afterward is all the more appreciated…
Guardian story, and the commenters don’t seem real thrilled with the idea either.
Since when have they been doing Black Friday in the UK?
Wow, we really are the herpes of the world, aren’t we? I am so, so sorry.
Don’t be sorry. If British retailers choose to adopt an American custom, it’s their own damned fault. They know that if people think that there are great bargains today, they’ll shop even if they don’t really need anything. And they may not compare prices; a lot of stuff isn’t even all that cheap today.
For the first time this year I saw ads for “Black Friday” sales in Panama. Panama doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving either.
According to the Telegraph:
Well, Canadian thanksgiving was almost 7 weeks ago and Black Friday sales are really picking up here now. I can see the reason for it though, a lot of the sales are available on line. So, why lose out to the Yanks. People were lining up at 6:00 this morning.
Excellent! A whole new country of people I can feel smugly superior to from the comfort of my couch the day after Thanksgiving.
Supposedly back in the day, Christmas in the UK meant about 3 straight days of closed stores & closed gas stations to basically FORCE you keep your butt home and cook for yourselves (or to visit family and friends, if you had the gas).
It was set aside as a time for things personal and away from things business.
(At least, that’s how it was explained to me.)
But if they have been infected with The Umbrella Corporation’s Black Friday, I know that this couldn’t possibly exist today.
Well, I guess we have to allow them to nuke LA to even the scales.
(Fail-Safe, anyone?)
Inspired by SeaDragonTattoo, I’m observing “Buy Nothing and Go Nowhere Day.” 
I already saw ads for Black Friday in Spain, France and Germany last year. Several of the retailers involved are multinational chains present in those three and other countries and I assume they had BF sales all over the chain.
This year, Spanish newspapers are running articles explaining what the heck is this “Black Friday” thing. Ads sighted in the wild in Denmark and Sweden (I didn’t visit either this time of year last year).
sigh. Leaving you and the other AdBusters only 30 or so days to shop. That’ll show 'em. <fx teeny-tiny applause>
Phase 1.
The three phases of instigative marketing are:
Nah, it’s phase 2. Phase 1 was last year’s sales, with idiots saying “ohmygodtheresablackfridaysalemustgo!” and normal people answering “so what the fuck is black friday, how is this sale supposed to be any good when most of the christmas stuff isn’t in stores yet, and why the heck are you talking without breathing?” The only “black day” people could come up with was the '29 crash, but that wasn’t a friday.
Apparently the dudes from Marketing expected phase 3 to work without the other two and without, really, most of the christmas stuff being in stores yet.
Meh. I hardly have anyone to shop for and I do as much of my shopping online as I can. No crowds to beat and it gets delivered to my door. I no longer succumb to the holiday shopping madness.
As an American - I strongly advise that you newbs not attempt Black Friday without the customary Thanksgiving carb-loading and Day-Of-Naps-In-Front-Of-The-Telly. You have to train for this if you want to outrun the gunmen and the grannies with loaded carts.
The NYT had an article this morning about how the best deals are found after BF, so it’s rather pointless to engage in the lunacy.
Different subject, but my reaction is broadly this:
Well, somewhere recently I saw a claim that one in six British people now celebrate Thanksgiving :(, although I have not noticed any actual sign of it. I am not sure what they might be giving thanks for, either: perhaps getting rid of those nasty puritans.
It depends on the deal. Most Black Friday “crushes” fall into two groups; everybody trying to get This Year’s One Hot Item (e.g. Tickle Me Elmo; PlayStation 2) before it sells out and you have to explain to your kids that Santa’s elves couldn’t make enough of them, and poorer people trying to get doorbuster items (I remember about 20 years ago a run on a stack of relatively cheap boom boxes by people who clearly gave off the “This price is as close as I’m ever going to get to getting my child one of these things” vibe).
Besides, somebody has to take over the Black Friday tradition; more and more in the USA, stores are opening on Thursday night.