Scores of Bulawayo residents on Friday flooded clothing retail outlets in the city centre such as Edgars and Jet for a Black Friday shopping spree.
Synonymous with price reductions and cheap sales, Black Friday traces its origins to America’s thanksgiving holiday that falls on the 4th Thursday of November each year.
Its crusade has however spread across Europe and Africa.
A visit to the city centre by CITE in the morning showed that some shops were selling some of their products at reduced prices.
There was a hive of activity at the main Edgars shop situated at the intersection of Jason Moyo Street and 8th Avenue.
Shoppers were busy selecting clothes while some were queuing to make some payments and others already seated down because of fatigue.
The place was so crowded that it was not easy for customers to freely move.
While the clothing retail giant had reduced prices by 50 percent, it was not every product that was on sale.
Black Friday products were clearly marked and were placed on tables for customers to select.
“Some prices have indeed been reduced and that is why you see us flooding this shop,” said a man only identified as Mhlanga.
“I am with my wife here and she is busy behind there and you know women, when it comes to shopping. This has been somewhat an earlier Christmas for us since we managed to pick up some clothes for us and the children.”
Mhlanga, however, said he could have bought more had his remuneration been good.
Most people were buying using their accounts while a few were using cash.
At Jet outlets, there were snake-winding queues with authorities there allowing a limited number of people to get in and shop.
“Here it is better than at Edgars in terms of products being sold but the problem is the queue,” said a woman outside the shop.
However, in some supermarkets prices of some products were slightly reduced by way below 50 percent.
“I bought this tin of baked beans for $10 at Choppies, yet I had seen it going for $15 else,” said another woman.
“All you need to do is to just go around checking because it appears like it is not everything that is being sold at reduced prices.”
Black Fridays are more pronounced in South Africa and a number of Zimbabweans cross over to do their shopping there every year, taking advantage of massive discounts being offered by shop owners.
