Perhaps the best manifestation of consumer and retailer trends occurs during the current holiday period as the U.K. seems to have fully embraced the American shopping extravaganza of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
The shopping day has become a huge event in the U.K. and this year is shaping up to be no exception: Barclaycard, which processes nearly half of all debit and credit card transactions in the U.K., estimated that this Black Friday spending ended the day up 8 percent versus 2016 (as of 5.p.m. Friday).
Breaking with my online shopping habit, I went to a mall with my sister-in-law this last weekend. We spent three hours wandering around, walking in and out of shops, getting spritzed with perfume and creams, sipping coffee and stopping for lunch. We may have bought a thing or two but the highlight was having a fun day out. The shopping was secondary (and highly inefficient).
Joumanna Bercetche is a London-based reporter for CNBC, covering company and geopolitical news.
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