Black Friday on Sabbath eve
The biggest shopping day of the US season reaches Israel
Most Israelis don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, but that doesn’t mean they’re not interested in their own Black Friday, America’s day of retail frenzy that arrives each Thanksgiving weekend.
While there are attempts in the US this year to boycott the biggest shopping day of the year as a protest in honor of Michael Brown, the unarmed teen killed by a police officer, some of the smaller retailers in Israel are pushing hard for Israelis to spend.
“Maybe not all Israelis know the reason behind Black Friday, but everyone knows that this a special day for shopping, with lucrative discounts,” said Marina Pozner, marketing manager for Stuffstore.co.il.
The online shop, which sells women’s clothing and accessories, will be offering 20 percent off new winter items and 70% off sale items this Friday.
In 2013, approximately 141 million US consumers shopped during Black Friday, spending a total of $12.3 billion in brick-and-mortar stores — according to CNN Money — and $1.964 billion in overall online sales, reported TechCrunch.
GDP per capita in the US is around $48,387; in Israel, it’s currently at $32,000, according to recent figures from the World Bank, but that’s lower than 26 European countries, with Spain just above Israel, at $32,360 GDP per capita.
That said, recent figures from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics stated that consumer spending dropped at a 2% annual rate in the first three months of 2014, reflecting a per capita decline of 4%. It was also the second straight quarterly decline.
It makes sense that Israelis are looking for bargains.
Israelis do love to shop and scour for deals, said Pozner, which is why local retailers are offering Black Friday deals.
The country’s retailers are “still far from America,” said Pozner, in terms of the scale of Black Friday events, but “plenty of businesses are catching on to the idea.”
“More businesses know consumers are waiting for this day to do some serious shopping,” she said.
WallaShops, a popular online shopping site, is offering a long weekend of VAT-free shopping, as are retail computer accessories store BUG and online shipping site BUY2USA, which offers items from Amazon, eBay, Walmart, the Gap and other American retailers.
Several Tel Aviv boutiques and clothing shops were also advertising Black Friday deals, including Tel Aviv’s refurbished Sarona complex, said Natasha Chechik, who handles press relations for the recently renovated Templar collection of homes that now houses upscale shops, wine stores and restaurants.
“We’re doing our best to provide our customers with the best shopping experience we can, with a little aroma of overseas,” said Checik.
It’s a change of pace for the former German Templar colony that once subsisted on farming. More than 20 Sarona shops will offer Black Friday discounts on Friday.
Israelis are still adjusting to the concept of one-day or multi-day sales.
Some 220,000 Israelis navigated shopping site Shopping.il, during a two-day shopping spree organized by Google in early November, spending a total of $20 million in online deals, according to The Marker.
Black Friday, despite the lack of Thanksgiving Thursday, could help spur spending.
“We certainly hope so,” said Pozner.
The Times of Israel Community.