#BlackFriday: Tough times aside, it’s shopping time
When the going gets tough, so they say, the tough go shopping.
Mathapelo Lenea rushes to fill her trolley with goods at the Pick ‘n Pay in Maponya Mall on 22 November 2017. Mathapelo was the winner of the Citizen’s trolley dash competition, and had 60 seconds to fill her trolley with as much goods as possible. Picture: Yeshiel Panchia
Today, there are going to be hundreds of thousands of people around South Africa diving head-first into the frenzy of “Black Friday”.
There are going to be bargains to be had out there – ranging from the not bad to the eye-popping – and there are no doubt those who so love buying things that they will shop ’till they drop. But, shopping can also provide a useful bit of escapism from our current reality which is, even by the most soft assessment, “tough”.
Fuel prices are about to rise, dragging food and other prices along with them; GDP growth needs a microscope to calculate; the world’s financial fundis are about to downgrade us and we sometimes feel they are right: we are junk.
Today, though, provides that heady rush of adrenaline – something our ancestors might have experienced hunting for sabre-toothed tigers – which will make us feel vibrantly alive. Tomorrow will be the hangover – from battered joints, battered wallets and battered credit cards – and reality will return with a thud.
But for now, go out there and enjoy. Have fun. Get the killer bargains. You’re tough. Get going.
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