China has the "Singles' Day" shopping spree on Nov.11, and the US has "Black Friday" on the day after Thanksgiving, which marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. This year's Thanksgiving was Nov. 28, so Black Friday was Nov. 29.

Although I am not an enthusiastic shopper, I decided to experience the buying spree in the U.S. and compare it with the Chinese one.

Low price is always the biggest driving force for shopping. No matter whether you are in China or the US, people all flock to the malls with the biggest discounts. Even before Thanksgiving, discount advertisements for Black Friday were being repeatedly displayed on TV. I visited a few malls on Black Friday, noting that the high-end malls had plenty of customers, but few of them were actually making any purchases. However, at the middle or low-end malls, crowds of customers were exiting with bags in their hands.

Online shopping is gradually replacing physical stores in China, and the same is true in the US. Ebay and Amazon, the two biggest E-commerce enterprises, had 27 percent and 24 percent sales growth respectively this Black Friday. Just like China, online fraud is a frequent occurrence during this period. Before Black Friday, the Federal Bureau of Intelligence, the Federal Trade Commission, VISA, and many websites released a series of warnings to shopaholics.

There are also differences between the shopping seasons in China and the US.

China's Singles' Day obviously had bigger discounts. 20 percent was more typical on Black Friday, and only low-end brands or specific items had bigger discounts. I think there are two reasons: Firstly, the everyday price of American goods has few bubbles and less room for discounts; and secondly, large discounts might hurt the image of luxury brands.

Some stores even closed on Black Friday to show their corporate philosophy of respecting the values of the family get together, and also to send a message: our everyday prices are already favorable enough.

Finally, after comparing the prices before and after Black Friday, I bought a mobile phone at an online shop. The delivery tracking information showed that my purchase had been sent from "ZHENGZHOU". It took me a while to realize that the phone I had bought in U.S. was made in Zhengzhou, China. The product chain in the shopping season is a perfect reflection of economic globalization. 

The article is edited and translated from《中美“剁手节”有何异同》, source: The Beijing News, author: Xu Lifan.

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