Market braces for Black Friday

Retail commerce has already entered Black Friday mode, although there are still eight days to go, as several stores have started putting on special offers and most are inviting consumers to register for their newsletters and declare their preferences from now so that they can get prior notice of discounts to come.

All the major electrical and electronic appliance chains (Public-MediaMarkt, Kotosovolos and Plaisio) use this method, as it gives them the chance to get ready for the sales with a good picture of the commodities in high demand, and not to suffer any significant shortages, which could cause customer protests.

Black Friday is on November 26 this year. Retailers in Greece started promoting the post-Thanksgiving US tradition five years ago to boost store sales.

Besides the possibility of shortages, the other major headache for retailers is the rapid monitoring of vaccinated or recently tested customers, complete with identity checks. What everyone is obviously hoping for is that no additional restrictions are imposed in the meantime, after the most recent ones that hurt retail during the midseason sales.