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Black Friday (traditionally the Friday after thanksgiving in the US) and Cyber Monday (the first Monday after Thanksgiving) obviously originate in America, but in recent years Black Friday and particularly Cyber Monday are now seen as online hotspots around the world.

This time of year is never the best if you are peddling advertising, but how about other business owners who sell products?

Anyone see any increases in sales over the mythical Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Does anyone specifically market and advertise to capture Cyber Monday shoppers? Or is it just part of the general xmas sales peak?

The re-released Band Aid song seems to be getting quite a backlash from various celebs, pop stars, MP's and even charities.

It's made it to number 1 with money going to help the ebola outbreak and Sir Bobs response is pretty much to the point and as expected

Was it right to roll this one out again, or should they have done something new? Does it portray a patronising view of Africa or lack of thought as one of the arguments is a lot of victims are Muslim who don't celebrate Christmas 

Or is just hot air, future chip wrappers and a harmless charity song that will raise a bit of cash for a good cause?

Hived the conversation off to a separate thread to preserve the Telesales thread as I took us off piste! 

So was that RCT or Really Large Corps 

Applied for the RCT and RAF MT at the same time as both offices were next to each other. The RAF bloke said the food was better, but the Army bloke said they had better wagons, was a tough call! In the end the RAF came through first, which was 1987, in the days before drawdown and redundancies and still a choice of sunshine tours where the locals don't shoot at you.

Missed both Ambulance strikes, though plenty of oppo's had lots of stories and tales to tell. In the RAF you drove anything from staff cars, ambulances, coaches to artics, which could change daily. Then there was cushy stuff like aircraft refuelling which in reality meant sit and watch the telly and refuel a plane once every few hours.

At RAF Wittering near Stamford, just North of Peterborough and South of Grantham, there was a gap in the civvy ambulance network. As we had a regional med centre, we were hooked into the civvy network and used to cover 10 miles of the A1 and A47. Always guaranteed plenty of blue light jobs. Normally from minor shunts and panicking motorists.

Was (and still am a bit) lorry barmy. When based at Odiham, was on a cushy 2 days 2 nights 4 days off shift. So on our off days we all used to drive for Sainsburys as their depot was down the road. Great fun, better wagons, same faces and the £10 per hour wages made us feel like rock stars compared to the peanuts we were on  Happy days

Any other ex-mob lurking in the shadows?

My challenge tomorrow Sue is to generate a couple of members from the Channel Islands 

That's definatley ex mob  Only half a lobotomy here, did 12 in the RAF as MT. Spent some of it driving ambulances which was always good for a laugh, but was always big lorries that fascinated me  Barneys an ex squaddie, so just missing a Matlo for a full house

What about yourself?

Fascinating post, especially for someone like me that has zero retail experience. 

But you've flagged some interesting points and I think a lot of businesses genuinely don't help themselves. Capturing online sales to me is just making more efficiency of your physical business. If it's a product or service that can be bought or ordered regularly, then giving existing customers the flexibility to do it in the comfort of their arm chair in the evening is obvious.

So why do so many small traders blow it by having a god forsaken free web site generator that looks like it was created by a 5 year old. If you are running a business, you can afford £500 - £1000 on a half decent but professionally created wordpress site. It should pay for itself in the first 30 days.

If there is no budget, then going to the local college and giving the design students a project, what a great idea. Prob even get some free press out of it as well.

But I look at my Town Centre, Stratford Upon Avon, which I'm lucky, it is a lovely town, we have the street theatre, musicians, morris dancers. As a tourist town footfall isn't an issue, although it's obviously tourist trade biased, so maybe no good for shoe shops or computer accessories.

But the town is very clean, we have town centre pedestrianised areas, 2 large park and ride schemes and there are well publicised events going on all year round.

So why are the shops still closing? We have a central shopping area now that is a complete ghost zone, with the odd pop up shop.

I noticed we've just lost another printers, estate agent, toyshop and a chippy. The Premier Inn has had the ground floor advertised as a shopping unit since it opened last year and is still vacant. A restaurant in the town has just opened as an Italian, after the previous Chicken diner folded after 6 months, and the restaurant before it folded within 12 months.

A walk around the town see's a Help the Aged charity shop has just opened, nearly opposite the Hospice charity shop, and adds to the ever growing total of charity shops. Not sure if Stratford is a unique case, or if all towns are now being taken over with £1 shops and charity shops. But there are still plenty of closed down shops, ignoring collapsed chains.

With footfall so high, I've always thought it must be a license to print money if you have the right products at the right price, especially with so much American and Japanese passing trade who are unfamiliar with the term haggle.

I've been tempted with a few ideas of setting up a shop, but convinced I must be missing something, otherwise why isn't everyone else doing it, why are so many businesses folding, and why are there so many empty units?

Have we lost the nation of shop keepers title? Is it a lack of business acumen, education or passion? Any business owner worth their salt that has an office or shop know's you have to haggle and ignore any rental prices, so I'm not convinced with the familiar high rents argument being an issue.

Is it something else? I'm quite vocal about in town parking charges and the parking special forces crew . In my mind this has definitely been a reason that sends us locals to the retail park and Tescos/Morrisons/Waitrose, ignoring our lovely new Park and ride scheme. Why drive out of town to be bused back in?

But why in a town of high footfall, probably above average cleanliness, lots of things going on including friday and weekend town markets, are shops still closing?

I genuinely don't understand it.

Spinning it completely, take a drive through Sparkhill and Sparkbrook in Birmingham, and you will see vibrant and very busy primarily Asian communities. One obvious thing I notice, other than how incredibly busy the place is, the majority of the shops are small independent traders, and a lot of there wares are on display in the street.

So you get lots of colour and smells, it's vibrant and inviting and reminds me of bizarres and souks I've seen across the Middle East and Asia. Versus the sanitized shop, that is hidden away behind a door you have to consciously open and walk through.

I guess the European version of this is Cafe culture, overspilling into the street. People say our climate doesn't lend to this kind of behaviour, but no ones told the shop owners in Sparkhill

I've noticed now in the large retail park which has all the shop units next to each other, but are all your high street names, now exiled out of town, that the majority of the automatic doors are now held open, even with this colder weather. It makes such a difference, straight away the retail space is inviting and the big open double doorway allows you to see lots of products on display. This is prob retail marketing 101 for the seasoned pro's, but it's surprising the number of town shops that have their doors firmly shut. Maybe they can't afford the door way heater, or it's to deter shop lifters?

I hope the future of the high street isn't virtual reality, coffee and charity shops, with a few poundlands thrown in. But maybe it's time we started looking around our multi-culture nation for some inspiration.

Even our local Spa shop has doubled in size, staff and turnover since it got taken over by the Poles. It knocked through and expanded to the local greengrocer next door that went bust

Love it, confessions of a retailer! 

What an amazing story, that would be a great contender for confessions on Simon Mayo's drivetime show on Radio 2  

How good is Gary Vaynerchuk!! That video is from 2008 and still stands up!

Just shows though, been a sales guy is all about passion and conviction of your product and service.

On the first aid side (knowing nothing about it apart from annual refresher courses years ago in the mob), can you spin the HSE card? Are there advantages to having a trained first aider on staff?

Does having a first aider or first aider offer any employer perks, tax breaks? Can it reduce insurance? Are there grants that cover small businesses allowing them to put people on courses?

No idea to any of the answers, but if you come up with enough right questions and you can spin it in such a way that it's not a cold sales call, but an employer opportunity to save money, gain kudos etc. Then in the mind it becomes soft sell lead generation rather than cold calling, and the associated hostility that goes with it.

Our survey said.....  no

Maybe she'll defect and will become the next UKIP MP 

image credit: dzeyznfiverr.blogspot.be