Will an Arab Black Friday take off?

Once a year in the US, cameras capture footage of marauding masses charging through major stores praying/preying at the altar of consumerism as they amass the items that are fractionally cheaper for just one day only.

The day, known as Black Friday, became an American holiday tradition. Held annually during Thanksgiving, an exclusively American holiday. Black Friday is in theory a day that stores can sell in quantity, while people stock up in gifts and supplies for the ensuing holiday season (Christmas, New Year etc.).

In the US, this day is generally known to bring out some of the worst manifestations of human greed or desperation for a bargain by consumers. For sellers, it’s a different story. In fact the name “Black Friday” is said to trace back to the 1960’s when stores would start to turn a profit- or move from being in the “red” to “black” in accounting terminology. Black Friday and Thanksgiving sales alone amounted to nearly $2.7billion. If one-fifth of all American households went shopping precisely during those two days then on average each of those households would have spent at least a whopping $110.

It is safe to say that Black Friday is more of a cause for celebration for the owners of the stores rather than the customers. In an increasingly globalized world, trade tends to cross borders more frequently than anything else, and with it, consumer culture.

Despite being intimately related to a very American holiday, Black Friday is one of those concepts that have spread and is now being superimposed as a “tradition” on some global marketplaces across Europe, and even more bizarrely, in the Arab World. Many engaged in feeble attempts to give the day of sales a local twist.

Dubai’s retailers did the most “Dubai” thing possible, which is to one-up Black Friday by making it a 4-day long event and tagging “Cyber Monday” along with it for online shopping. Morocco’s largest online shopping outlet said that bringing the sales day to the African Market was a “long term” project for the company. They claim that it is a “sales opportunity” for their customers.

If it were in fact, an opportunity for its customers, they would hold a sale based on local market consumption patterns. Surely it is simpler to market a “sale”-which is already a known concept to Africans- rather than first explaining what Black Friday and then marketing the concept. However, the opportunity for the retailers lies in latching on to a foreign (Western) concept and seeming “international,” which would ostensibly help boost higher-end sales. Consequently, whenever they hold “Black Friday” in the future, it would be sales on items that are already generally more out of reach of the average consumer.

This is clear for a country like Egypt, where Black Friday was also introduced in its malls that, similar to most upscale Middle Eastern malls, represent a hyper-globalized space where upper and upper-middle class consumers may indulge in the major brand names emanating from Europe and the North America. Many Egyptian retails replaced Black Friday with “White Friday.” Black as a metaphorical adjective in the country is usually synonymous with something ominous or catastrophic, in phrases such as “black days” or “black calamity.”

Whether it’s white or black, that “day” falls well into attempts to further popularize the ever expanding Western brand name consumption in a country undergoing dire economic circumstances, rising inflation and diminishing liquidity. The neoliberal economic platform that was established during the Mubarak years is continuing and since one of the buttresses of neoliberal economies is continuing consumption of this nature, selling the concept of “branded sales” becomes necessary for the long-term growth prospects of such markets where brand recognition and a quick turnover of stock are necessary attributes.

Egypt’s GDP per capita stands at around $2,800 compared to $49,000 in the US. Sales will be a must to popularize high levels of consumption, especially when many of these brands sell at prices comparable to their prices in the higher-income countries.

Policies affecting the economy may further effect the purchasing power of the population. On one end the country is facing a foreign currency crisis stemming from inconsistent monetary policy, currency valuations and fiscal spending, while contributing to high inflation rates.  On the other, the state is offering high-yield investment certificates for the second time, which encourages people to put their money in the relatively safe hands government investments, rather than spending on non-essentials. These tendencies would have the cumulative effect of growing the consumer market at rates that would achieve noticeable market growth, and so sales may be a good short-term solution.

This is not to overstate the phenomenon of Black Friday in the Arab World; it is a relatively miniscule and imperceptible occurrence in the grand scheme of things. However, trends like these attempt to normalize patterns of consumption that have not grown organically from within society, and as such tend to only exacerbate disparity between those with wealth and/or access and the vast majority who have neither.


Mohamed ElMeshad is a journalist and a PhD candidate at SOAS, focusing on the political economy of the media. He extensively worked in Egypt, Bahrain, West Africa, the UK and US. Recently, he contributed to the Committee to Protect Journalists' book, Attacks on the Press (2015).

Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of al-Araby al-Jadeed, its editorial board or staff.