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    Black Friday warning as 8 in 10 deals same price or cheaper at other times of year
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    Black Friday warning as 8 in 10 deals same price or cheaper at other times of year

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    35 Comments

    1. A_Pointy_Rock on

      I find this to be a sort of odd warning they do every year.

      If you don’t immediately need an item then yes, I get it – but that is just common sense. Don’t buy something just because it is on sale.

      Otherwise – the fact that something was on sale in July does not really help with my Christmas shopping.

    2. cooky561 on

      I mean does this surprise anyone? Plenty of “deals” are in fact just offering the old price for a bit before a price rise comes in.

    3. HotelPuzzleheaded654 on

      It was always a shite gimmick, they even stretch it out over weeks so it’s not even “Black Friday” by definition.

    5. usernamesforsuckers on

      Just be careful, yes there’s duff deals out there but at the same time I snagged a dji mini 3 for the same price as a mini 4k in the black friday sale (albeit with fewer batteries). The trick is to monitor your item price for a while before sales periods.

      Use camelcamelcamel or pricerunner to see what the historic price has been.

    6. 811545b2-4ff7-4041 on

      If you’re not using price trackers when shopping online, you’re not doing it right to start with.

      I got a nice deal on some rum i’ve been keeping an eye on the price, and it legitimately was the cheapest it’s ever been on sale on Amazon before. (Zacapa Solera Gran Reserva if anyone cares 🙂 )

    7. MDK1980 on

      Bought my camera earlier this month on sale (about £400 off in the manufacturer’s winter sale, which runs until end of January), but have been keeping an eye on prices specifically to see the BF shenanigans. Wouldn’t you know it, some online retailers have already pushed their prices up by about £200 this week just before BF “sales” are meant to go live. So, I guess they’ll just drop the price by £200 again to the original value from a week ago to show of their “massive savings”.

    8. DanzaDragon on

      At least for Amazon, you can use camelcamelcamel to check the price history. It’s helped a lot in the past to spot if a price reduction is genuine or not.

    10. Current_Case7806 on

      I picked out my Xmas gifts and left them in my basket….3 did go down but one nearly doubled in price!

    11. AnalTinnitus on

      I remember when Black Friday used to last just one day. Now I spend the whole of November clearing my email accounts of Black Friday spam.

    14. Blank3k on

      I don’t see the big deal – It’s just a day where you can be pretty damn sure the thing you’ve been eyeing up, will be on sale, sure it’s probably going to be the same price as other times it’s on sale, but there is a chance it’s even cheaper & if you aren’t someone that checks daily etc at least you know black Friday ‘season’ is a safe bet.

    15. EstablishmentOdd9701 on

      I think most people have cottoned onto thr fact that retailers hike prices in the weeks leading up to black Friday to then make it looks as if there has been significant discounts. I think a government backed consumer watchdog should tighten rules around this and only define a “deal” as a price that is below the average cost of a longer period (say the past 6 or 12 months) 

    16. Mr_Flibbles_ESQ on

      Amazon have started giving you the price history of products now, so at least it’s easier to check.

      That said, it doesn’t seem to include any prices that had Vouchers applied previously so still not a complete picture.

    17. Mountainenthusiast2 on

      I’ve noticed sometimes they’ll raise the price a bit before to then reduce to “sale” at the price it was previously 

    18. aqualink4eva on

      Yeah I’ve noticed this too with a bunch of stuff. I went to buy some Grenade protein bars the other day thinking they’d be on sale, but they’re still like £18 disguised as a deal lol. I can get them for that price *any* other time of the year.

    19. Verbal_v2 on

      March is typically the best time of the year for deals, at this time of year it’s febrile with Christmas shoppers so you just get the veneer of a deal, particularly on places like Amazon where it’s all a big song and dance about being in the event.

      Some of the brands we manage have got some of the lowest prices of the year at the moment but most are mediocre.

    20. limeflavoured on

      Its illegal to advertise something as a sale unless its actually been sold at a higher price. That should be strictly enforced and companies should be fined.

    21. honkballs on

      The black Friday sales this year have been particularly poor.

      Normally from September (or even before), if I want to buy something and can put it off I do, I keep a big list of things to buy on Black Friday (along with doing all my Xmas shopping then).

      I make a note of the price at the time, and then compare it to the “sales”.

      Previous years I’ve got some amazing deals, this year though they have been really disappointing, lots of “fake” discounts where they mark up the original price just to make it look like a saving.

    22. RichieLT on

      There is a couple of really good deals to be had but they’re only good deals if you’re looking for that item.

    24. oncemorein2thebeach on

      It’s kind of sad. I used to look forward to the new year sales, that become post-Christmas sales, that became just before Christmas sales, that became Black Friday sales because there were sometimes genuine deals.

      Now the sales start at the beginning of November and almost all of them are rubbish.

    25. Otherwise-Handle-180 on

      Black Friday is only good if you need something and you know somewhere there’s one on sale. But to raid the shops thinking you’ve somehow outsmarted the system is foolishness

    27. bacon_cake on

      I’ve had my eye on a duvet set for my son for a couple of weeks. Not especially waiting for a discount or anything but it’s been on clearance at £6.50 in Argos.

      Last night he said he was really cold so I thought I’d order it for collection today, apparently now the £6.50 is a a BLACK FRIDAY discount…

    28. TrumpsAKrunt on

      If it helps Argos is doing a black Friday thing where if what you buy drops in price again after they give you a voucher for the difference.

    29. redditpappy on

      If you’re shopping online, Edge will automatically tell you whether the current price of an item is the best price (currently and historically). Very handy feature.

    30. TheAdequateKhali on

      I’ve had something on my Amazon wishlist for a while and it’s apparently now showing that it’s almost £100 “cheaper” than the RRP. The price has stayed the same.

    31. sephtis on

      Where I work alternates the basic price (often written as a deal) and a better deal price every week or 2.
      A lot of the deals just have black friday on them instead of “sale” or similar.

    32. terryjuicelawson on

      I like to think people know it is a little performative. How many of us have a wishlist and know to pull the trigger when the price is right or that item is really needed, so would avoid some of the worst fake sales. Maybe they were cheaper in one of the other sales they have over the year too I guess. A lot of people may barely care, they like the illusion of money saving. What retailers need to be careful of is people holding off purchases until the next sale, then find the savings are poor so wait for the next sale and so on. DFS for example has become a joke.

    33. Fubseh on

      I’ve been looking for a new TV recently; decided on the one I wanted and have been monitoring the price over the last few weeks waiting to see what black friday might bring.

      Then, on Oct 17th (5 weeks before the black friday), a new model silently releases to the market without any fanfare. This new ‘A’ model is exactly the same spec as the one I am watching, except that the remote doesn’t have a backlight and offers fewer free months of the brands in-house streaming platform. Except it’s £500 more expensive than the model it’s ‘replacing’.

      Today, the original TV is the same price but the new ‘A’ variant is £50 cheaper and being advertised as “£550 off” for black friday.

      So not every fake deal is about the same product being available cheaper elsewhere in the year.

    34. InternetHomunculus on

      Some businesses get items in specifically for black friday. They have them in 10% of stores at a high price so when the deals roll around they can legally claim its a sale when the reality is they always wanted to price it that way

    35. J1mj0hns0n on

      Here’s a better advice.

      “If you really wanted it, you would’ve purchased it earlier, and if you’ve just seen it and need it, it’ll still be there in a week, but it then”

      This will stop frivolous shopping dead. Because if you really need it or really want it you’ll remember in a weeks time and will be willing to pay whatever the price is. If it’s a passing fancy, you’ll forget within the hour