While retailers stateside were lamenting over the not-so-stellar Black Friday numbers, U.K. shoppers were more than keen to lap up all the sales involved with the shopping event. Sales greatly exceeded initial estimates, going up 1.6 percent in November. The surge caused overall sales to jump to 6.4 percent compared to last year and is being heralded as the biggest increase in about a decade.
Still, Britain’s Office of National Statistics say that the numbers reported, while impressive, do not take into consideration last November’s Black Friday sales, though they do admit that this year’s shopping event greatly contributed to the hike. Numbers from Cyber Monday were also excluded as it landed on December 1.
But regardless of details, it’s safe to say that U.K. retailers have got to be pretty pleased with their performance this year. And since Black Friday is an event they adopted from the U.S., we Americans would like to say, “You’re welcome.”
