Lockdown meets Black Friday | rethink.economy

This year, the pandemic has shaken up all the rules of the game for seasonal and sectoral developments in retail. Especially in retail, the situation was almost black and white between winners and losers. While DIY stores, sporting goods and grocery stores benefited immensely from the home office and lockdown, the textile and car trade and businesses that live off tourism were among the big losers. For this year's Christmas business, a 20 percent increase in turnover is predicted for online retail. This does not include the current lockdown. It is already noticeable that the Christmas business is starting earlier and consumers are uncertain whether they can still get everything a few weeks before Christmas.

And here it comes again - Black Friday. Black Friday. Historically, among Christians, this day has been the name for a special unlucky day for centuries. In the financial world, historically as a day with big stock price losses. Later, this term was adopted in the United States for the day after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, which always falls on the fourth Thursday in November, is traditionally followed by a long weekend with the family and thus also the start of the Christmas shopping season, Black Friday. Without much tradition, we in Europe have adopted this custom, although in our country Black Friday is primarily known only for its discount campaigns.

Several analyses have shown that this promotion does not create more purchasing power (where would it come from?). It is merely a redistribution, both in terms of time and in the direction of online suppliers, with the big platforms benefiting in particular. Furthermore, so-called moon prices (inflated prices) are often heavily discounted. Another analysis shows that the average price saving is only around 6 percent. Is so much stinginess really cool?

All in all, it brings less business to most domestic suppliers, with less contribution margin. No matter whether online or offline. With lower margins, purchasing power is massively migrating to the big international platforms, which are already the big winners in the current pandemic. This will be exacerbated by lockdown-related shop closures.

It will be up to us whether this Christmas will be a showdown for many domestic businesses and jobs, or whether we rely on solidarity and a little less "stinginess is cool". Especially this year, therefore, it is especially true: your cash register receipt is your ballot paper!

In the spirit of our campaign "Make a wish come true", this year we are focusing on solidarity, rays of hope and are pleased to be able to donate part of our Christmas proceeds to the Kinderhospiz Sterntalerhof.

economy.rethink | A blog series by Richard König

Picture: Refugium Prigglitz 2019, Alexander Ehrmann (l), Richard König (r), © rkmedia.at