Black Friday 2019: best deals, bargains and the latest news – live – The Guardian, Theguardian.com

I was planning to make some joke about it being a Black Friday for Arsenal and Manchester United fans after their dismal Europa League performances last night, but now thatArsenal have sacked Unai Emerymaybe their fans will at least have cheered up a bit.

Pro-tip though, if you’ve got a football fan in your life you need to buy gifts for, nearly every football club is doing discounts in their online store at the moment. There’s up to 20% off atManchester United,Arsenalhave up to 50% off,Spurshave got up to 25% off,Manchester City have up to 50% offand so on.

Liverpool have opted to brand their sale as “Red Weekend”, With 20% off when you spend more than £ 75. They have a black away kit this year though, so a missed opportunity for a Black Away Kit Friday pun or two.

Hey, even my belovedLeyton Orienthave got a sale on.

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I see someone below the line mentioning that I’ve used the word “folks” which is an Americanism. I mean, to be honest, the whole ofBlack Fridayis an Americanism, so I think I can be excused. I think I’ve always said “folks” though – I blame watching too many Bugs Bunny cartoons in the seventies.

Talking of cartoons – and by extension comics – Forbidden Planet have got some absolutelymassive reductions on comic books and graphic novelsat the moment, which could be ideal to buy for the geek or lonesome awkward teenager you need to get gifts for. Or me. You could buy me the cheap Doctor Who comics slashed from £ 18. 99 to £ 1. 99!

Trees have been in the news this week, as Labor were promising to plant a gazillion of them, and lots of people did the maths to “prove” that we don’t have room for one single extra tree in this country, apparently, and it was a ludicrous policy. The people at Pomp disagree. Their Black Friday offer is “Buy one, get one tree”. I approve of puns by the way, more of this sort of thing please.

For every order of their ethically-produced clothing made by Tuesday, they’ll plant a tree. They also have an ongoing promotion courtesy of Prof. Ed Hawkins of the University of Reading who kindly allowed them to use his warming stripes graphic for their# showyourstripes collection. Profits from the sale of items from this collection fund their membership of a social enterprise planting trees.

Gift company The Book of Everyone are offering 50% off any personalized map when bought with a personalized book, which saves up to £ 25. You have to followthis link. The company say their books are completely carbon-neutral.

The idea with the map is you can pick somewhere that really means something to you. What would I pick? The bridge in Paris where I proposed to my wife? The beach in Crete where we first discussed having kids? The bit of Oxford Street where I got stopped and searched by the police in 1988 on the suspicion that I had been shop-lifting cassettes from HMV? The possibilities are endless.

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I’m trying to set a new world record for the number of times somebody can type ‘of’ instead of ‘off’ in a live blog. All praise to the sub-editors who keep coming in to tidy up my mess afterwards.

In the meantime I’m rather taken with this, some really lovely looking gifts made by a couple, Syreeta and Rob. Rob suffered a near fatal brain haemorrhage and stroke in 2014 could only communicate by drawing for a really long time. They’ve turned his art into a business – (Moments Of Sense & Style) – and today, instead of Black Friday, they are doing Give Back Friday. For every sale made today, they say they will donate 15% to the Stroke Association. There are prints, scented candles, and some really lovely looking sketches of places like Altrincham, Lincoln and London.

(Time Flies for Kids) are a new company, founded by two mums based in the South West. They design and make eco-friendly activity packs for kids. The packs are made from 65% recycled and fully recyclable cardboard and the idea is that everything in the pack is either recyclable, biodegradable or reusable. They are offering 30% off everything over the Black Friday weekend.

My colleague in France, Angelique Chrisafis, says thatBlack Fridayhas been a spark for protests there:

“In France, climate protestors are using Black Friday to stage high-profile protests and sit-ins over the impact mass-consumerism.

Friday’s demos began before dawn as several dozen people protesting over unfair tax structures for internet giants as well as climate change arrived at Amazon’s French HQ at Clichy outside Paris shouting “Stop back Friday!”. Politicians on the left as well as Greenpeace were present.

Yesterday, green protestors had blocked a vast Amazon warehouse in Brétigny-sur-Orge outside Paris, unloading old washing machines and microwaves and lying across the road to the entrance. After two hours, police moved the demonstrators, with eight arrested for blocking the traffic. ”

You ‘ ll notice I am being quite selective about which companies I link to today.

Here’s an initiative which takes the concept of Black Friday and then turns it into something much more worthwhile.Ethical superstoreare instead doing Food Bank Friday. The deal gives you 20% off, plus they promise to donate much-needed grocery items to theNewcastle West End Foodbankwith every order over £ 30.

If you’ve got questions about why we need food banks in the UK in 2019 however, allow me to point you over to where my colleague Jedidajah Otte is doing (our general election live blog) .

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My little lad was very excited about the new Pokémon games when they came out earlier this month, and he saved up his own pocket money and some left-over birthday present money for ages to buy it himself on the day it came out. He is 6, was so excited, and there was literally no dissuading him with “But maybe you could ask Santa for that?”. Anyway, he finished it this morning, so looks like Santa is going to need to bring him another game in any case.

If you are also on the look out for video games or consoles, then here are some of the deal highlights

(Game)

Game’s biggest deals are a PS4 with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare for £ 199, and there is also a deal on the PlayStation VR bundle, if VR is your thing.Their Black Friday offers are here.

Green Man Gaming

There’s a range ofdiscounted game titles hereif PC gaming is more your scene. Most games seem to be coming with a free download code for an Intel Starter Pack with 5 free games, though I can’t vouch for the blockbuster quality of those.

Simply Games

One of the Black Friday attractions atSimply Gamesare double-pack bundles where you get Lego games alongside the movie they are (loosely) based on. They’ve got a range of deals on consoles as well.

(Zavvi)

Zavvi have gotnine deals on consoles at the moment– including the Switch light for £ 199. . They are offering free delivery on orders over £ 50.

Pre-loved?

Don’t forget though, if you don’t mind a bit of pre-loved action,CEX is worth checking out. It’s where I’ve slowly been completing

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Apologies, just took a break from posting there while I commuted into the office. Can confirm that Transport for London are not having aBlack Fridaysale on tube fares today.

Anyway talking of ethical Black Friday, one of the biggest differences you can miake to you our carbon footprint is switching to a meat-free diet. Gauthier Soho have been in touch to point out that are offeringa Black Friday sale on their vegan taster menu for two.

At £ 65. 50, even with discount, that might be out of your price range. Possibly more to your wallet’s taste arethe offers from the Vegan Kind Supermarket, who have a range of deals on offer over the weekend.

This is the kind of thing I’m talking about.Roka bags in Londonare doing Black Friday a little bit differently – a portion of each bag sold this Friday will be donated to Plastic Oceans, an organization committed to pollution education and waste reduction. AndRoka’s sustainable bagsare each made using between 12 and 15 recycled bottles.

Seen anything similar to this? Let me know:martin.belam @ theguardian.com

Aldi’s website has confused me because it currently says “Don’t miss Orange Thursday”, and now I’m not sure what day of the week it is, or whether I should have been live-blogging yesterday as well. Anywaythe deals are here, though maybe you have to time travel to actually purchase them.

Argos

All theArgos Black Friday dealsare gathered in one place here – and they are going big on an XBox One S for just £ 129. 99. There’s also a great deal on a vacuum cleaner, but, pro-tip, don’t buy your significant other a vacuum cleaner for Christmas.

(Lidl)

Lidl havea page full of offers here– including, at the moment, a Lenovo tablet for £ 80 and one of those George Foreman grill things which could potentially revolutionize how you serve your Xmas dinner.

(Tesco)

Nothing particularly on special offer on their website, but in-store they are havinga Black Friday clearance sale on clothes. Surely the joy of Black Friday is that you don’t have to trudge out into the cold though?

Waitrose

There’sa free bottle of champagnewhen you order wine from the Waitrose Cellar apparently. There’s also20% off their exotic Heston range of Christmas foods. Not in my house though, where I’ll be cooking Xmas dinner and it is dried-out Turkey all round.

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If you are looking for fashion bargains though, here are some of the best discounts coming through so far today

All Saints

As a non-fashionista myself, All Saints will always be an amazing 90 s pop band to me, rather than somewhere to pick up clothes. They are offering30% off everything today. The clothes store. Not the band.

(Asos)

(Up to) % off everything at Asos, although bear in mind that “up to” can do a lot of lifting.

Farfetch

For Black Friday they are offering“thousands of pieces” with an extra 30% off.

French Connection

C’estune offre de 30% de réduction, vous utilisez le code “BLACKOUT”. Tu vois ce que j’ai fait là?

(Net-A-Porter)

All the offers are in one place, and it isup to 30% off.

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As I mentioned in the intro, Black Friday has become a firm fixture of the pre-Christmas season, but increasingly with the climate crisis on the horizon people are re-thinking whether a massive splurge of consumerism is the right thing to be doing before Christmas. Here’s Eva Cruse with some thoughts about howBlack Fridayfuels the damage that fast fashion is doing to the environment.

Phones are always a big seller during the festive season, and if you are thinking of getting one of the latest models you could do worse than check out our buyer’s guide from my colleague Samuel Gibbs, our consumer technology editor .

I actually need a new phone myself, thanks to a small incident when I was out playing Pokémon Go with my youngest. True story, he was actually a little bit worried the Pokémon might escape when between us we managed to shatter the screen.

I had been thinking about switching to Giffgaff, their Black Friday deals are offering (up to £) ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** (off the latest models) .Apple’s own offersthis weekend seem to boil down to giving you gift cards of varying amounts to spend in the Apple Store.

Or maybe I won’t get a new one at all – just get the screen on mine patched up and try and break out of the cycle of renewing a phone that is working well enough every couple of years.

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The first port of call is of course to see what is around on the websites of the UK’s major high street retailers – who must have mixed feelings about the internet-drivenBlack Fridayevent. Internet shopping is, after all, one of the factors that has been giving them such a hard time. Here’s what you can get on some leading brand websites:

Debenhams

Debenhams are promising a (VAT-free Black Friday extravaganza on fragrances) – their words not mine. They also have “up to 50% ”off other lines online, including women’s fashion. Their Black Friday deals areall gathered here.

Harvey Nichols

They have branded the whole thing “Cyber ​​weekend” – it is up to 40% off selected items on their website.Find the deals here.

House of Fraser

Their offer is a “£ 20 voucher delivered by email for use on future purchases ”for every £ 100 spent, and then there isup to 30% off selected items, including Christmas decorations. Not that you have your decorations up yet.

John Lewis

The rather grandly named “Black Friday Event” offers can all be foundgathered together on this web page, with sub-sections for the usual categories, including electrical goods, fragrances, clothes, and stuff for the nursery if you ‘ ve managed to cunningly time having a new baby with Black Friday.

(Liberty)

If you think “Black Friday Event” sounds grand, then Liberty is there saying “Hold my beer”. They are running “The event before Christmas”, which isn’t as you might have suspected, everyone running around in a blind panic because the forgot to buy the cranberry sauce, but is in fact up to 30% off selected lines online and in-store. There doesn’t seem to be one particular place they’ve put all the deals, so you’ll have to have a bit of a mooch around the website.

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Martin Belam

It is that time of the year again. It didn’t used to be much of a fixture in the British calendar, butBlack Friday– indeed the whole of this forthcoming weekend – have become a key part of the countdown to Christmas for retailers and consumers alike.

I’m Martin Belam, and I’ll be trying to help you navigate to some of the best deals online from retailers both big or small.

Rampant consumerism in the Guardian? Well, not quite. Of course I’ll be pointing you to the best deals for phones, games, clothes and other things that might feature on your nearest and dearest’s Xmas lists. But I’m also very interested in the environmental impact of Black Friday, and I’ll be directing you to some sustainable and ethical deals and products which can help mitigate the environmental damage of the holiday season.

And I’m keen to hear from you, readers, about alternatives to spending money on stuff that folks don’t really need. So drop me a line onMartin .belam @ theguardian.com, and hopefully I can help save you a bit of cash on your Xmas gifts and we can have an ethically sound Black Friday too.