There are some American imports for which we should be thankful. Not Donald Trump, obviously. Other things, though – the motor car, baseball, Dolly Parton, chewing gum, and, erm, crayons.
On the other hand, there are a number of US products we could do without. I’m thinking here of evangelical preachers, sub-prime mortgages and Spam. Then there’s Black Friday.
While this day of frenzied shopping has been part of the American calendar for decades, it’s a recent UK import. Always falling on the day after Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday of November – so the 25th for us Brits), Black Friday’s hype spirals year after year. Shops promote it heavily, claiming that this day – and this day alone – represents a sales bonanza, and it’s true that it’s now the biggest shopping day of the year.
But a new report by Which? casts doubt on this so-called cheap-as-chips 24 hours. The consumer group says that a whole host of products promoted as being ‘on sale’ were cheaper before or after the event.
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