Last week I unfortunately found myself in London…on… ‘Black Friday’ – this is probably the last place on earth that any sensible person would want to be on this fateful day. The roads were absolutely chaotic and the shops just had to be seen to be believed. At various times I thought I had accidentally wandered into a protest march of some sort due to the volume of people… several rows deep just …shop, shop, shopping till they dropped…

At one stage I walked all the way down Bond Street even though I wanted to cross over the road but couldn’t get out of the stream of pedestrians…..

So what caused this shopping frenzy?

Apparently it’s some American tradition prompted by thanksgiving?? Getting bargains from the store prior to the holidays…?? Anyway whatever the reason, prices had been slashed and London was an orgy of normally rational people going all out for a major % reduction and a bargain…trampling the elderly was considered reasonable behaviour….and queue jumping the norm.

I may be considered unusual – but – I’m not a big fan of ‘bargains’. If i buy a shirt and it is £60 then the following week its £30…my reaction isn’t … ‘what a bargain’ …it’s more… ‘bloody hell I’ve been ripped off’….why didn’t they tell me last week that the shirt would be in the sales??

Hence what is considered by the shop to be a winning tactic fails miserably and I decide never to shop there ever again.

To me – a price should be based on a series of factors:

Marketing and sales
Cost of materials
Cost of manufacture/construction
Delivery
Profit margin

Obviously within these prices there are variables – and one can reduce profit margin for short periods. But at the end of the day… low, low prices every day are not sustainable. Look at the Supermarket chains battering our dairy farmers for lower and lower prices till they reach a point where each pint of milk is actually costing our farmers money…

We at JKSL are not immune…. having recently lost a project in Bolton (our doorstep) to a company based on the South Coast …who are travelling to Bolton carrying out a day’s spraying then returning to the South Coast all for… £220.00 a day.

We have companies based in Scotland coming down to Manchester carrying out spray works that Manchester based companies are deemed too expensive to carry out?! …duuuh

This cannot possibly be sustainable? I just don’t get what’s going on in their heads?….

…wouldn’t it actually be better to take a day off, have breakfast with the wife and kids then take them to school, nip back home and make love to your dear spouse….THAN DO A DAYS WORK FOR NOTHING.

I’m sorry but just occasionally I think …might as well just give up…and go cheap.

Naaah …couldn’t do it.

Mike C