When I was growing up we didn’t have Black Friday. It wasn’t a thing in the UK. It is something they had in America and possibly in Canada when Justin Trudeau was getting ready for a party.

I can’t remember exactly when it happened but at some point in the last decade we adopted this American event. It’s a day when discounts are offered on some items in shops and we seem to be encouraged to get into a scrap to secure the best bargains.

They say everyone has their price and it’s good to know that for some people the amount of money it would take for them to shove a granny out of the way is five per cent off a TV.

This year I predict a very different feel to Black Friday. Firstly, the novelty of fighting in shops has gone after the experience we had in lockdown. Once you have seen humanity get shirty about a 32-pack of loo roll you’ve seen it all. It wasn’t that long ago we were fighting over petrol on the forecourts.

This time we have Black Friday during a period of shortages. Most days there’s a story in the papers about a shortage of some item or other. We have seen warnings of a dearth of toys at Christmas, which doesn’t bother me. I’m a grown man so I’m not expecting much for the festive period. It’s mainly socks and aftershave. Seeing as I have a short beard most of the time it’s only the socks I’ll use.

I also grew up in the 1980s when not getting the toys you wanted was a tradition.

In the last week alone there were reports of shortages of pain killers, crisps and sparkling water. Normally you could solve the last one by taking still water and adding a soluble aspirin to it but we’re running out of pain killers, remember.

There were reports of shortages of DIY supplies and home furnishings. If you want to buy some new shelves you should go to my local supermarket because they have lots of them on show.

The cynical part of me thinks that Black Friday is nothing more than a way for shops to get us to buy even more things. It’s in the gap between getting us to buy way more sweets and decorations then we need during Halloween and the mammoth purchasing for Christmas.

This year I am less worried about it. No one will queue all night outside a shop and fight off fellow bargain hunters like a live version of the film Running Man is the shelves are bare.