Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day and marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the United States. Over the last few decades, this traditional American celebration has become popular in most Western countries, although many people ignore its original meaning. With big chains and online retailers offering special promotions and discounts on much of their merchandise, in the U.S. Black Friday is generally the busiest shopping day of the year.
On this occasion, scenes of crowds queuing for hours (or even overnight) outside of shopping malls hoping to get their hands on the best deals are a very common sight on both sides of the Atlantic, with occasional stampedes and episodes of violence also often viewed as “part of the deal”.
Created in 2005, Cyber Monday is the Monday following Thanksgiving Day and is dedicated to all those late shoppers who didn’t find the bargain they were looking for on Black Friday or didn’t have the time to indulge in a shopping spree…
Are you immune to marketing gimmicks or do you often “shop until you drop”? Either way, try our test while practising your interpreting skills!
True or false?
- A study has shown that men forced to long hours of shopping suffer from sudden increases in their blood pressure.
- Women are responsible for more than 80% of consumer spending in the US, in Europe and in Australia.
- The average woman spends about 2 years of her life shopping.
- Men are much less likely than women to return from a shopping trip empty-handed.
- Small Business Saturday aims to encourage people to shop in small brick and mortar shops.
- Small Business Saturday was initially promoted by MasterCard.
Now check your answers!
Questions 1 to 4: 23745 (EN) Why men hate shopping
Question 5 and 6: 26263 (EN) Small Business Saturday
For more speeches on shopping and Christmas gifts, check also:
24593 (EN) Online shopping
23922 (DE) Weihnachtsgeschenke
27643 (ZH) Future trends in e-commerce
What about the repercussions of our current shopping trends and consumption habits? These two speeches provide a critical view on the topic:
26054 (FR) L'obsolescence programmée
26274 (FR) Être plutôt qu’avoir: révolutionnons notre mode de vie
Happy shopping…oops, practice!
Your Speech Repository Team