Black Friday comes to Ghana, too

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• LONTO-BOY 10 years ago

  Black Friday is yet another US commercial craze spreading into Ghana. Efo Amenyo, you're right. Amazon first introduced the Black Friday shopping deals to the UK in 2010, then ASDA, John Lewis and others joined in and now wi ...
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  Black Friday is yet another US commercial craze spreading into Ghana. Efo Amenyo, you're right. Amazon first introduced the Black Friday shopping deals to the UK in 2010, then ASDA, John Lewis and others joined in and now widespread. This year, the Black Friday sales didn't do well as before as many customers resorted to online shopping to avoid the in-store madness of pushing, punching, shouting, snatching and shoving as shoppers tried to get their hands on cut-price items. And now there's the Cyber Monday, that is the first Monday after the Black Friday, where customers choose to do online shopping.
  
  We may have some modern shopping malls in Ghana but I wonder if the Black Friday frenzy could well have much traction in Ghana. Given the country's economic hardship, poverty level and largely sole proprietorship business in the country, I can't see many retailers wanting to take part in this discount promotion, especially ahead of Christmas sales.

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• Kofi Amenyo 10 years ago

  Thanks, LONTO-BOY
  
  I see the problem as not so much that we imitate foreign things but that we find it easy to imitate the WRONG ones but find it difficult to imitate the GOOD ones!
  
  For instance, you are right that the m ...
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  Thanks, LONTO-BOY
  
  I see the problem as not so much that we imitate foreign things but that we find it easy to imitate the WRONG ones but find it difficult to imitate the GOOD ones!
  
  For instance, you are right that the monopolistic ownership of business in Ghana will make sure that Black Friday bargains won't catch on in Ghana because the consumer will benefit at the expense of the business class. But if European/American businesses adopt some measure to fleece the consumer further, you can be sure Ghanaian businesses will quickly copy it and even make it worse to the consumer.
  
  
  Why can we easily imitate European fashion but not their strict attitude to work?
  
  
  Even the few good things that we imitate, we do so badly instead of improving on them and adapting them to our needs.
  
  But, LONTO-BOY, did you get any good bargains on Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Not me. Sometimes, these sales tempt you to buy cheap things that you don't really need. You buy them hoping you will use them but never get to using them.

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• Bob 10 years ago

  You enter a shop and the security is all over you as if you're a thief! As blacks, we suffer this suspicion in Europe. To come to Ghana and be subjected to the same treatment is disheartening.
  
  You check out and someone wh ...
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  You enter a shop and the security is all over you as if you're a thief! As blacks, we suffer this suspicion in Europe. To come to Ghana and be subjected to the same treatment is disheartening.
  
  You check out and someone who was even seeing you as you paid for your goods will still check them against your receipt. Before you enter Shoprite at Accra Mall you have to empty all your personal effects at the gate. And yet the shops have security gates the pip if you leave with an unpaid for good.
  
  The supermarkets are so crowded you won't have a place to put your step.
  
  Foreigners have dominated the retail market. Only few Ghanaian owners.
  
  Are we going forward or backwards?

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• james asamiah 10 years ago

  Great

  Great

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