With Black Friday fast approaching lots of big retailers are enticing customers with money off offers and promises of bargains galore. Small retailers like us aren’t able to purchase colossal quantities of stock for cheap so we can’t compete with the big guys in the discount stakes. That is why we are having our own take on Black Friday, our Charity Black Friday Event! A 10 day event supporting our chosen charity, Cosy Kingdom.
Have you ever wondered where Black Friday came from? The answer is America. The retail giant, Amazon, introduced the idea of Black Friday to the UK in 2010 and it’s grown in popularity each year with more and more big retailers joining in. Huge businesses like Curry’s or Argos use Black Friday as an opportunity to sell excess stock at a discounted rate. This can be beneficial if you have been waiting all year to buy a new TV or iPhone but it’s estimated that Black Friday contributes massively to excess waste, especially e-waste as people buy things they don’t need simply because it’s cheap. A group of lawmakers in France want to ban Black Friday citing environmental impacts due to this excess waste.
Our Black Friday event will not be contributing to any e-waste. With the help of our customers we will instead be contributing to the fight to keep people cosy this winter in Fife.
How do we plan to do this?
We will donate £2 from every sale over the Black Friday period, between 22/11/2021 and 01/12/2021. We have set up a JustGiving page where customers can make additional donations if they wish. We have also committed to donate and deliver 2 dumpy bags/6 barrow bags of our kiln dried hardwood logs per month over the winter period to individuals identified by Cosy Kingdom.
We have partnered up with Cosy Kingdom, a small charity based in St.Andrews that offers essential energy advice to all home owners and tenants across Fife. They also offer other vital services including gas and electricity debt advice as well as their handy service. The handy service is a means tested service in which Cosy Kingdom can supply and fit items such as LED money saving light bulbs, warm curtains and poles, draught proofing, hot water cylinder jackets and more. These small measures can add up to huge savings which are essential given the soaring cost of utility bills in the UK.
According to official figures the average cost of gas and electricity in the UK in 2004 was £565. The average cost in October 2021 was £1277 and this is expected to jump again in April 2022. This figure is even higher for people using prepayment meters which millions of people currently have in place.
Cosy Kingdom are busier than ever and expect increasing numbers of people to contact them this winter for help. This means that Cosy Kingdom need to raise more funds to cover the cost of the amazing work they do. We hope that our Charity Black Friday event will not only raise funds for the charity but also raise awareness for the essential work Cosy Kingdom carry out. To access the JustGiving page please click the link below.
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/charity-black-friday-event