25/11/2016 World Business Report

But with the unstoppable rise of online shopping -

is the annual retail rush - still such a big deal?

Plus - battle of the ex-Prime Ministers.

High unemployment - stagnant growth and creaking public

finances - the challenges mount up for France's next President -

despite their efforts, Japan can't beat deflation.

We are talking retail - because depending on where you live

in the world you have probably been bombarded with adverts and e-mails

offering "massive discounts" and "unmissable deals".

There's no escaping that today is not just Friday -

In the US - it's the day after the Thanksgiving holiday -

and it traditionally marked the beginning of the Christmas

It was the time stores went 'into the black' for the year -

And it's still a huge day for retailers.

Over 137 million Americans are expected to go in search

That would be a million and a half more than last year.

The big change though is the internet.

As many Americans shopped online as actually went to stores last year

and online sales were up 40% in 2015.

Expect that trend to continue this year.

Here in the UK some 14 million people are expected to shop.

But again many will be doing it in their pyjamas.

According to one prediction - British shoppers are expected

to spend over ?2 billion but over a billion of that -

Actual traffic on the high street may even be down.

Walmart's UK unit Asda has not taken part since chaos in stores in 2014.

But big names like Next, Primark and Ikea are also sitting it

Other retailers are offering discounts over longer periods.

And consumer groups have warned that many deals online are not

all they seem to be - last year prices were actually

cheaper before and after Black Friday.

So is Black Friday literally less of a big deal these days?

Here's a look back at some of the crazy scenes of the past.

The boss of fashion chain Jigsaw - Peter Ruis - is among those

He says it's a bad deal for shoppers and retailers.

We believe that Black Friday is a deception. We hate the idea that all

of these retailers create these discounts that are not really

discounts. In my industry it is often something that is a cheap

fabric that has been discounted 20% but it was never will worse 20% more

in the first place. Or it is previous season stock. It makes us

look like we are peddling cheap objects in a market rather than

something we spend years creating. In fashion, most Black Friday

purchases are returned. It is a double whammy. A loss of profit, a

loss of margin and that product sits around in supply chains. Many of you

have been in touch with me already with your thoughts. The conversation

on Twitter. One woman tells us that she is working today in retail

starting at seven o'clock. She is not looking forward to it, hoping

for calm. Lee says that in a few years we will look back at this and

be embarrassed that we got sucked into this. Ian says that working in

retail for Black Friday that the company he works for is not

participating so he will have a normal day. Let's turn to France

now. The race to be the

conservative candidate for President will be

decided on Sunday. It's between Francois Fillon -

on the right - and Alain Juppe- on the left - both

former prime ministers - after ex-president Nicholas Sarkozy

was knocked out last weekend. The two faced off last night in a TV

debate where polls indicate Monsieur Fillon came

out slightly ahead. France is facing high unemployment -

around 10% - weak economic growth They will all be key issues

in an election where far right leader Marine Le Pen is expected

to mount a serious challenge. Professor Douglas Webber

is Professor of Political Science Thank you for joining us on the

programme. I don't know if you are able to watch the television debate

last night that give us your thoughts on the economic ideas of

both candidates. There is a difference of emphasis at least

between the two candidates and their economic policy proposals. They go

roughly in the same direction, they both want to cut the French deficit,

they want to cut the number of civil servants, they want to make it

easier for employers to fire employees. And they also want to...

Too, um, sorry. Mr Fillon wants to go further and faster than Mr Juppe.

It is correct to say that he wants to prescribe shock therapy for

France. We have seen that it is difficult to initiate reform in

France. The current president had a struggle pushing through labour

reform for example. The problem is that whoever gets the job, will they

be able to push through such shock reforms if that is the mandate they

get in on? That is the big question. 20 years ago when he was Prime

Minister, Juppe tried to introduce a lot of major reforms in France and

failed because of opposition. The same happened to one of his

successes in 2005. In the past, or at least, the only reforms that have

been in France have been piecemeal gradual limited reforms that have

been discussed with trained unions rather than imposed unilaterally by

the government. Mr Fillon was the Prime Minister under Nicolas Sarkozy

in 2007 to 2004. He was by parcel of the reform process. We might find

that after the second round in the primary on Sunday when he starts his

campaign for the presidency himself he may strike a more moderate tone.

But the idea of prescribing a shock therapy affects labour law right now

but it is popular among right-wing voters. At the moment it is a useful

sort of thing for Mr Fillon to emphasise. Thank you very much for

your time. Let's go to Asia now -

and there's no relief for Japan in its failing battle

against deflation. Sharanjit Leyl is following

the story for us in Singapore. Nice to see you. A little bit more

about the latest inflation numbers out of Japan. Consumer prices are

falling in October. No big surprise there for a nation that we know has

been battling deflation for more than a decade. What is interesting

about the numbers is that this is the eighth straight month of decline

making it the longest string of falls in five years. Essentially it

showed that call prices it excluding fresh food fell from last year and

this data comes several weeks after the central bank push back the

timeline for heeding its 2% inflation target. We know that the

central bank's target is a key part of the Prime Minister's did to pump

up the world's number three economy. He is doing this through stimulus

measures, like printing money, what he calls his own version of

economics. It has set off something of a stock market rally that has

spurred some hopes for the once soaring economy but it does not

appear to be enough growth still fragile and inflation is still well

below the central bank's target. Thank you very much. I will see when

a couple of minutes when we review the papers. Goodbye for now.