Black Friday Hits UK: Christmas Discounts of up to 70% and Who's Offering What

Here's a typical scenario of Black Friday in US: Fist fights over toasters, screaming fits over cut-price calculators, men waiting for three days in the cold for plasma TVs.

This is the reality of Black Friday in America, the last Friday of November and the day after Thanksgiving, when every retail store in the country offers one-day-only deals to herald the start of the Christmas season.

This massive annual retail event has now made its way to UK in a big way. Asda, John Lewis and Amazon are among those brands looking to bring a flavour of the biggest shopping day in America's festive calendar over the Atlantic to Britain, reports The Telegraph.

From cut price Kindles, video games and tablet computers to steam mops and coffee machines for as little as £49 is what shoppers are being promised in the biggest 24 hours of the Christmas shopping season so far.

Black Friday 2013 UK: Who's Offering What?

Asda - owned by US giant Walmart - is promising "earth shattering deals" across its 350 stores nationwide with the Cyclone Explorer 7 inch tablet computer priced as low as £49 in a first-come-first-served offer.

All of Asda's superstores are being decked out with Walmart logos with the promise that in all, some 500,000 products will carry "unbeatable" prices. Asda expect the Cyclone Explorer and an LG 42 inch plasma TV to sell out within two hours of stores opening their doors at 8am.

Andrew Moore, Asda's chief merchandising officer, said: "Last year Walmart reported their best ever Black Friday event with stores in the US serving over 22 million customers in one day. We're taking our lead from them and utilising their know how to help create an offer that means Asda shoppers can benefit from incredible savings at a time when they really need us the most."

Very.co.uk said it was cutting the price of homeware, fashion, beauty and electrical items by as much as 70 per cent from 8am on Friday, when it will highlight 10 new promotions every hour until 8pm. Sony Wireless headphones will be cut from £99 to £49 while a 43 inch Samsung Plasma TV will be cut from £549 to £349. Electricals specialist Maplin is cutting the price of a Silver USB Touchscreen Weather Forecaster by £50 to £49.99 while a Steam Mop that was £89.99 is being reduced by £20.

Christopher North, UK managing director of Amazon, said: "Since we started Black Friday deals in the UK, the concept has really caught on and is now a much anticipated event in the UK shopping calendar. In 2012, we offered millions of pounds off more than 1,000 deals including high-spec coffee machines, signed CDs and Kindle Fire devices."

"This year we'll be releasing twice as many deals to make it easy for customers to save money on this year's must have gifts," he added.