Black Friday: tailbacks for petrol savings, no fights over TVs to report

Go, which has more than 40 sites in the Province and in the Republic of Ireland, brought down the price of their unleaded petrol and diesel and motorists were prepared to queue for the cut price fuel.

In an online post on their Facebook page, the firm said diesel and unleaded would be priced at £1.19 – a 20p discount.

It was announced as a Black Friday deal with ‘No Catch. Just huge savings’.

There was however a maximum fill of £100 which the company said must be into vehicle tanks only with no container or storage tank fills allowed.

Meanwhile today’s adverse weather conditions meant that city and town centres weren’t as busy as they might have for Black Friday.

In Belfast while some people sought out bargains, a small number held anti-capitalism placards. One advised that you could “save up to 100% by buying nothing”.

Retail NI chief executive Glyn Roberts said the hype around Black Friday had died down since the days of people fighting over TVs, but that it was still a means of increasing footfall.

He commented: “Black Friday has been losing its importance, I’m not saying it’s not a key part of the calendar for retailers, but people are starting their shopping for Christmas earlier and earlier every year.

“Cyber Monday is growing in interest. What we do need to do at the end of all this, the entire Christmas period, is look at how much is spent online and how much is spent in bricks and mortar shops.

“This Christmas as a whole is absolutely vital for so many independent retailers because they’ve closed much of the year, they lose most of Christmas last year. There’s a lot riding on this Christmas.”

Mr Roberts said: “We’ve got two weeks to run with the Spend Local card, people are using that for their Christmas shopping, that’s obviously a plus.

“I think for Black Friday it tends to be the larger retailers that embrace it, some small independents would get on board, but there wouldn’t be a huge amount.”

He added: “If Black Friday brings people back to the high street, boosts footfall, that can only be a good thing, though the days of people fighting over TVs, all of that is gone.

“I don’t think it’s as important but we shouldn’t underestimate that it is still a key part of the trading calendar for many retailers.”

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