Major chains criticised for adopting the US-inspired discount day, which caused chaos at sales events around the country

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

MPs have urged Britain’s retailers to boycott Black Friday, attacking the demand on police resources caused by the US-inspired sales bonanza that saw officers called to stores across the country as sales events descended into chaos.

Greg Mulholland, the Lib Dem MP for Leeds North West, criticised major chains for adopting the discount day and sympathised with police officers who said they had “enough to do already”.

Incidents included people fighting over televisions at Asda in Wembley and officers intervening after 200 people refused to leave a Tesco Extra store in the Manchester area despite being told it was sold out.

The promotional day did not boost the total amount of sales, profits or number of parcels delivered over Christmas above the level already expected, according to research by online retailers assocation IMRG.

It squeezed huge numbers of orders into a few days, putting unprecedented pressure on delivery systems. £810m was spent online on Black Friday last year, the biggest ever day for UK online sales.

“It was a tsunami situation, sales slid back before it hit and subsided afterwards,” said Andrew Starkey, head of e-logistics for IMRG.

Nearly a fifth of all online sales rung up in the eight weeks to 27 December occurred in the week of Black Friday, a total of £3.7bn, with the volume of items ordered on the late November weekend at least 30% ahead of expectations, according to analysis with advisory firm Capgemini.

“It caught the public’s imagination and retailers’ imagination and suddenly everyone was on the case,” said Starkey.

The researchers forecast shoppers would spend 12% more online, taking sales to £116bn through the year.

Starkey warned that retailers would have to come up with tactics, such as spreading deliveries over a longer period or making click & collect services more appealing, in order to cope with a similar spike in demand this year.

“There’s no economic way retailers can reserve capacity all year for just that weekend. That’s the challenge for the industry,” he said.

Earlier this month, Andy Street, the boss of John Lewis, called on fellow retailers to rein in Black Friday promotions this year and ensure the day was focused on electrical goods rather than becoming a widespread discounting event affecting fashion, homeware and other categories.

Conservative former minister Sir Peter Bottomley backed Mulholland in urging UK retailers to boycott the event from now on.

But Craig Wheeler, a director of beauty products website Feelunique.com, said he was planning for sales to be twice as big. Alex Baldock, group chief executive of Shop Direct, the owner of the Littlewoods and Very brands, said the company had already begun talks with suppliers about this year’s event as he expected another step up in Black Friday fever.

“We think it’s certainly here to stay and we will make a lot of it in 2015,” he said. “It is perfectly possible to prosper on Black Friday if you are a good trader, can negotiate good deals and are well prepared months in advance,” he said. Shop Direct enjoyed its busiest trading day ever last year with orders at its Very.co.uk brand up 134% compared to a year before. Baldock said the event helped Shop Direct take market share and enjoy a 4% rise in total sales for the seven weeks to 26 December despite an 11% fall in sales at its traditional catalogue brands Littlewoods and K&Co.