Roundup: Spanish stores embrace Black Friday to boost sales

2015 is not the first year Black Friday is celebrated in Spain but it is definitely the year with the largest number of stores embracing this American tradition that opens the Christmas shopping season.

Many Spaniards do not even know where Black Friday comes from but they are willing to take advantage of the opportunities, something that Spanish stores celebrate with enthusiasm as it helps boost sales in times of a weak economic recovery.

"For me Black Friday is a good idea for the economy of the country," Guillaume, who was shopping at the big store El Corte Ingles, told Xinhua. "Because prices are low and because the people do not have a lot of money because of the crisis."

The slight recovery of the Spanish economy is being reflected on a rise in consumption and big stores predict with optimism big sales for Christmas that could amount to 3.5 billion euros (3.7 billion U.S. dollars).

Black Friday is another incentive to boost those sales and provide an atmosphere of consumption encouraging people to buy items no matter if they need them or not.

Maria told Xinhua she would buy something but admitted, "in the end, the truth is that we buy more things on a whim than things we really need."

Until 2012 the Spanish government had established the sales period in the country in order to protect the smallest stores but in the summer of that year the government changed the law leaving the final decision to the companies.

In 2012 for the first time some Spanish stores imported the Black Friday, and in 2013 and 2014 some big stores such as El Corte Ingles and some others owned by Inditex joined the initiative.

But this year big chains, some small and medium size companies, even the banks and especially online stores have embraced the Black Friday and Cyber Monday offering not only discounts on items but also on services.

The Spanish Association of Digital Economy predicted that online sales would reach 1.172 billion euros (1.24 billion U.S. dollars) between Nov. 27 and 30, or 10.6 percent more than in 2014 and representing 6.4 percent of the total online consumption in the country.

This year in Spain Black Friday was extended to the whole weekend and some stores have even been offering discounts for the whole week.

"I have just been to a store and they gave me a discount for the days after Black Friday so that you cannot stop shopping and you go to shop on Black Friday and the days after it as well," Carmen told Xinhua while checking some prices.

The impact and expectancy created by this year Black Friday in Spain is reflected on the stories published by local media that feature from listing stores offering discounts to how to buy in a responsible way and avoid being scammed. Enditem