Restart Radio: Black Friday and consumer confidence

We’re all familiar with the videos of people pushing each other out of the way to get to the products on the shelf. Huge savings on electrical equipment make this one of the areas of biggest spending. Do consumers really need to buy more, or is it just the next step in the ‘halloweenization of everything’? Polls and surveys of consumer confidence reveal a huge range of results. We take a look at recent studies and question whether they are representative of how financially stable people really feel. Levels of consumption may not be the best measure of our society’s economic health. Black Friday, Cyber Monday and its equivalents, such as the Chinese ‘Singles Day’, generate huge amounts of money, but where does this money really end up? Many of the jobs generated by online sales in particular are poorly paid, and the huge spikes in demand can just aggravate already bleak working conditions in the places where products are manufactured. Perhaps it’s time we paid more attention to other ways to enjoy Friday, such as ‘Buy Nothing Day’. We also take a brief look at the new Apple laptop models and the hashtag #donglelife. And let’s not forget the ‘Apple book’, which might just take the prize for the most overpriced object on the market at the moment.