I was sceptical we needed a "Black Friday" sales pitch but canvassed the hairdresser crowd yesterday and was blown away by the enthusiasm and planning they were putting into their Black Friday shopping! While I thought of Black Friday as unlucky Friday 13th they clearly saw it as an opportunity for starting (and hopefully finalising) their Christmas shopping this Friday 27th November.
Black Friday follows upon Thanksgiving in the US - in the 19th and 20th centuries apparently Thanksgiving parades were often sponsored by large department stores (like the Macy parade now) and Santa might make an appearance at the end of the parade, signalling the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Since 2005 it is commonly the highest turnover day of the year for American retailers. Cyber Monday is the following Monday (so this year 30th November) and seems to have been coined by the National Retail Federation, recognising growing ecommerce sales on the Monday following Black Friday.
What about Australia? With greater inreach from American retailers, Black Friday sales have grown this decade. Apple led the way, with significant Black Friday discounts and expedited shipping to Australia. Now most Australian retailers offer some Black Friday promotions. While we lack the holiday marker to launch the Christmas shopping season, apparently Australians now spend about $3.9 billion in these sales!​
So the hairdresser crowd offered this Black Friday tip: go to your favourite online stores, put your choices in your wishlist and on Friday logon early and checkout your shopping! Sounds dedicated to me.

An Australian team based in Fremantle launched Plastic Free July in 2011. They challenge individuals, families and businesses to reduce single use plastic in their lives. Last year, they reported that 250 million people took part in 177 different countries trying to reduce plastic waste.

This is a significant issue for businesses, especially those selling online. When you last opened your online order, how much single use plastic packaging tipped out? Getting your order to you in perfect condition is the ambition of every business, hence the generous packaging. What do you do with your packaging? Apparently only 10% is recycled so it is likely the rest is sitting in landfill. 

More businesses are moving to recycled packaging. We collect clean packaging (from supplies that come to us) or from friends and neighbours who are shopping hard in COVID and reuse the packaging in our orders. If our customers then recycled the packaging again who knows how far it could go? Happy Plastic Free July - have a look at plastic packaging in your life and see where things could be reused. 

Don't miss out on your black food supplies. Black garlic has a lovely black sheen with a rich umami flavour. Get some for your Halloween party cheese board - we hear black garlic is a favourite with vampires so all good for Halloween. In that spirit we are offering 10% off until Halloween - just use HALLOWEEN on checkout.

Learn more about Halloween traditions at this terrific site: http://mentalfloss.com/article/58341/origins-15-spooky-halloween-traditions

See more at ​https://www.garliciousgrown.com.au/buy-direct.html#/

Thanks to the NSW Government for sponsoring us to Fine Food Australia - a great experience making lots of terrific contacts that we now will follow-up. A little giggle along the way was Cathy pretending to do a cooking demonstration at the Innovation Kitchen - thankfully an easy cook of steak with black garlic, pont neuf potatoes with black garlic powder and green leaves with our beautiful black garlic white balsamic dressing. Check it out here!

Looking to build more successful partnerships in food service and hospitality. We really value our customers and supply some fabulous chefs and hotels. Come along and say hello at SP 35 in the Specialty Producers section. You can see our food service lines and taste black garlic. We look forward to working with you

Do you want an indoor warm event this weekend in the Canberra region? Come along to a fantastic curated artisan market - no junk just great products including our black garlic. We will be tasting and offering black garlic cloves and powders. Pick up a Father's Day gift pack. Look forward to seeing you at EPIC Canberra