Black Friday has little meaning for owner-managed shops in Zurich’s old town. They still notice that the big competitors offer big discounts.
The majority of smaller stores say they are not participating in Black Friday. For large chains, however, things are different.
Anyone strolling through downtown Zurich this week will often see posters in shop windows promising big discounts. It’s Black Friday again, and consumers are supposed to be lured into the stores with low prices. However, it is primarily the large stores and international chains that take part in the discount battle.
What do Black Friday and Black Week mean for smaller stores? We asked.
«Pink Friday» statt Black Friday
Stefi Talman has been designing shoes and handbags since the early 1980s. It has been based on Oberdorfstrasse in Zurich’s old town since 2001. Talman says: “Black Friday is a red flag for me.”
For them, the day is an imported celebration that devalues everything. The goods are offered at discounts and once the prices are low, they never recover. The absurd thing, says Talman, is that Black Friday takes place right before the traditional peak sales season, the Christmas season. And the margin has already been ruined.
Retailers are not doing themselves any favors with such actions. Everyone tried to outdo and take advantage of each other. Talman says: “It’s a lose-lose situation.” She only organizes a “super sale” when she has to reduce her inventory. This happens every three to four years.
Last year she responded to Black Friday with humor. She organized a “Pink Friday” and only offered pink fur pompoms at a cheaper price. “To make fun of the whole thing a bit,” as she says.
Stefi Talman responded to Black Friday last year with reduced prices on fur pompoms. This year, she says, the approach was missing.
Sale, but not because of Black Friday
A stone’s throw from Stefi Talman’s shop, however, there are sale lettering on the shop windows, namely in the shoe shop “Pomp it up”. But it doesn’t have anything to do with Black Friday, says Diego Traber, the manager. “We have discounts all year long,” he says. This is so that people always have a reason to visit the store.
But you can already tell that it’s Black Friday, says Traber: “People keep coming into the store and asking specifically about Black Friday discounts.” In some cases, visitors did not buy a shoe for fear that it might suddenly be cheaper later. It used to be easier, says Traber. There was simply a sale after Christmas.
Fight against discounts – all year long
In Beat Liechti’s shop “Rien ne va plus”, also in Oberdorf, you have been able to buy board games for thirty years. There are no Black Friday signs here. Liechti himself describes the event as “funny”. However, he does not feel any particular effect on his business. “I fight against discounts all year long,” he says.
With his small business he sells three to four copies of some games a year. Other, larger providers sold several thousand of the same game. These providers can offer discounts all year long, so Black Friday does not have a major additional impact on their business. In any case, as a store without an online shop, it is not as exposed to the discount war as others.
“At the end of the day, the customer himself has to know where he is making his purchase,” says Liechti.
Initially just one day, Black Friday is extended to a whole week in certain stores.
Difficult time for small shops
A few hundred meters further, opposite the Grossmünster, the fashion boutique Maison Julie opened a second branch two years ago. Tina Birnbaum is a fashion consultant at Maison Julie. She says as a small store it’s difficult during Black Friday. Especially when the big stores almost throw the goods at consumers – and then at dumping prices.
“As a family business, we don’t want to afford that,” says Birnbaum. Constantly advertising with new discount battles doesn’t make sense for any small shop. She emphasizes: “And no small shop does that either.”
Birnbaum complains about the bad timing of Black Friday, which is celebrated during their peak income period. She says that some of the big brands produce extra goods that they could sell again on Black Friday. And states: “If we start dumping prices now, then we will destroy ourselves.”
In addition, her regular customers were annoyed when a piece of clothing was sold at a 50 percent discount a few weeks later.
Birnbaum is of the opinion that it doesn’t work. There used to be clearly regulated sales and regular sales times. Since this regulation was rejected, there have been constant sales everywhere. That destroyed the entire industry. She wants a clearly defined sell-out period.
Quiet week with less sales
On the other side of the Limmat, at the kitchen and household goods store Sibler at Münsterhof, it sounds similar. The managing director Manuel Wiesendanger has nothing to gain from Black Friday. “You have a range and you should stand by it,” he says. “Even at the prices they offer.”
If larger providers offer high discounts, there is something wrong with the base price. Sibler only has a sale once a year, and this only affects products that are actually out of the range.
You can also feel that it is Black Friday at Sibler. “The whole week is a quiet week with less sales,” says Wiesendanger. People waited to make a purchase with the ulterior motive that a product would suddenly be available somewhere cheaper.
“And who goes without?”
Even in specialty stores for household goods and writing instruments, the answer to the question of whether to take part in Black Friday is definitely: no! Franziska Browar, the owner, says that as a small business you can’t keep up. Last year, many customers came into the store and asked whether Fabrikat was also taking part in Black Friday. Disappointed by the answer, many left.
An employee of the Working Goods Fabrikat store in Oberdorf.
Most people would not understand that smaller stores practically cannot afford Black Friday.
But why can’t they?
Browar says that the personnel costs alone are very high. She also wants to pay fair wages with her business. She takes a pair of iron scissors from the display case and puts them on the table. The scissors cost 105 francs. You pay the hefty price for it because the producer invested many hours in the work. She paid him enough of these 105 francs so that he could live on it.
If she were to have a sale now, someone would have to forego. She asks rhetorically who that would be.
Conclusion: The consumption day imported from the United States is seen more as a burden for the small shops in Zurich’s old town than as an opportunity to increase income. They seem to agree: We won’t take part in Black Friday.
