DID you miss all the Black Friday bargains?

Don't worry, it is Black Friday today too, even though it is Saturday - and it may still be Black Friday tomorrow, and for several days to come.

Confused? You should be.

It is several years since UK imported from the USA this desperate attempt to have shoppers rampage hellishly around the shops in search of pre-Christmas bargains.

We have thrilled to news footage of the harassed and the vanquished coming to blows in the aisles, or badmouthing shop assistants simply (gasp) doing their jobs.

There is nothing like a sale to return large sections of humanity to a neanderthal state where the clubbing, thumping and trampling of fellow beings is once more an animal instinct untempered by empathy or the rule of law.

And nowadays, we can roam around city and town centres and retail parks in this manner for several days. For this is no longer a one-off, 24-hour free-for-all.

Wandering around Cardiff earlier this week, I came across a window poster emblazoned with the legend 'Black Friday Week Sale Bargains'.

Ponder that for a moment. Black Friday Week.

Retailers are so desperate to get us to part with our money that not only are they trying to tempt us into a subhuman spending stampede, they are content to mangle the English language while they do it.

I'm not sure how Black Friday Week translates into Welsh, or French, or whatever language you care to name. It does not make sense.

But then, in this drive to strip consumers of every last penny in their pockets, very little does make sense.

I was heartened to see footage of the Currys PC World store on London's Oxford Street opening its doors early yesterday morning to one customer.

While he was daft enough to venture out for retail therapy at some ungodly hour, his reward was having the shop to himself, for a wee while at least.

I'd love to think that others' indifference marks the end of the Black Friday phenomenon. Scenes elsewhere however, suggest otherwise.

Happy 'shopping'.