Black Friday in Poland? Posted by Kasia on Nov 25, 2011 in Culture, Uncategorized
As we all know, Black Friday is usually pretty crazy here in USA. Not only is it the day of super promotions and super sales. It is also one of the most dangerous days of the year for traffic (korek) and security (bezpieczeństwo). People not only shop till they drop. Crooks (oszuści) are coming out of the woods looking for an opportunity to make the extra buck pick pocketing, breaking into cars in shopping malls parking lots, robbing homes and just stealing whatever they can put their hands on.
For retail stores the Black Friday is the ultimate tester of the merchandise selection and time for last minute changes. It is the single highest volume sales (najwyższa wielkość sprzedaży) day in the entire year. As the day passes, the stores get more and more messy . Customers start seeing empty delivery cartons all over the place. The shopping is so intense there is no time to keep the display floors shiny and in perfect order they are usually in. There are long lines of cars just trying to get to the parking lots.
This is what I see here, in the States. Do people have Black Friday in Poland? I do not think so. At least I have never experienced it when I used to live in Poland…It’s been few years, so maybe something has changed. I remember shopping trips before Christmas, but never “one day craziness”.
One more thing I have to mention is the returns. It is not as easy to return the item in Poland as it is here in the States….Even if you do have the receipt – it may be a problem. Some companies in Poland are definitely getting better about it though. One of my friends from the USA visited Poland couple years ago and went on a shopping spree. She bought a lot of things, mainly clothes, in different sizes. She thought she will be able to try them on and return sizes or items she did not care for…Well, she was really surprised when she went back to the stores. They gave her a really hard time and she was not able to return most of the items. It is really too bad, but it happens. So maybe this is the reason people in Poland don’t go crazy with shopping before Christmas…maybe not. I’m sure they buy a lot things and spend some crazy money on gifts.
And here is a questions to readers that actually live in Poland: do Poles have Black Friday or not? Let us know what you observe nowadays in big cities and smaller towns, villages.
Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)
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About the Author: Kasia
My name is Kasia Scontsas. I grew near Lublin, Poland and moved to Warsaw to study International Business. I have passion for languages: any languages! Currently I live in New Hampshire. I enjoy skiing, kayaking, biking and paddle boarding. My husband speaks a little Polish, but our daughters are fluent in it! I wanted to make sure that they can communicate with their Polish relatives in our native language. Teaching them Polish since they were born was the best thing I could have given them! I have been writing about learning Polish language and culture for Transparent Language’s Polish Blog since 2010.
Comments:
Linda:
I live in a small city in Poland (90,000 people). Yesterday, Black Friday, was just like every other day. The only sales I saw were online!
jonpgh:
The return policy in Poland has changed a lot especially in the malls where there are many international shops but even in the sprawling targs or bazaars. Even if a product has been worn, returns are very easy and accommodating. Customer service is in Poland and is just like the west now.
Barry:
I live in Siedlce and they’ve never heard of such a day. Shopping is normal here.
Tania Martinotti:
Sou brasileira e estou morando na cidade de Bielsco Biala na Polonia, tenho uma loja (outlet)de roupas de marcas italianas e pretendo pela primeira vez anunciar o Black friday. Vou arriscar e espero que funcione.