Black Friday. Ever since I started my business, I have been in two minds about running an offer on this day. As soon as I start hearing about this day, all I can picture are the videos of people behaving like animals, storming in to shops as soon as they open to grab televisions at bargain prices. They all swarm in, shoving each other and treading on each other, fighting over the items like hyenas fighting over a carcass. Every year it makes me lose hope in humanity.

But as a business owner I always feel the mounting pressure to provide some kind of discount or offer; last year I was going to take a stand and not provide a discount, but on the day I was scrolling through Instagram and saw offer after offer being provided by my fellow business owners and I caved. Boy did I cave, I rushed to my computer and created a discount code, quickly posted about it on my feed and the sales rolled in. But I didn't feel good about it.

To me, Black Friday is a horrible capitalist tradition, encouraging people to buy things they do not need with money they do not have.

However, here is where I am in two minds, as no matter how much I dislike it, I really like my customers and I really want to reward you for choosing to shop with me. I especially like the idea of you sharing my jewellery with your loved ones at Christmas.

So, yesterday I was thinking about what I wanted to do this year and I reached out to a group of business owners that I'm a part of and the overwhelming answer was "Do what feels right to you, your business, your rules" 
A lot of them said that they are running an offer; a discount, a free gift, or even keeping their prices the same but giving half the profits to charity (I believe this is called "White Friday" A lot of them use this day to clear out old stock, it gives them a nice cash injection whilst making room in their studio/office for new products next year. Such a great idea but that's not really necessary when your business is running on a "made to order" model like mine is currently.

The first thought I actually had when thinking about all this was that I want to tuck myself under my duvet and hide until it's all over, so that I don't have to make a decision about something that makes me feel icky; so that's exactly what I'm going to do! This year, on November 23rd I will be enjoying Blackout Friday; I am staying off the internet all day and there will be no offers on my shop. I will be treating myself to all the snacks and hiding from all the Black Friday nonsense.

But I still want to treat my lovely customers, so I will be running a Duvet Day sale on Sunday, this will be your best opportunity to buy from the large range of products that I am discontinuing at the end of the year. Every item in the Last Chance Saloon section of the store will be on three for the price of two all day, the cheapest item will automatically come off at the till so you don't need to do anything. And the discount will apply for every three items in the basket; so if you buy six items, the cheapest two will be free and so on.

If you are disappointed that there is no Black Friday discount, do not fear! If you sign up to my mailing list you will receive a welcome discount, valid until Christmas.