Most Black Friday products 'were same price or cheaper' beforehand

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Chippy_Tea

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Nearly nine in 10 products sold on Black Friday are available for the same price or cheaper earlier in the year, according to consumer group Which?.

It urged consumers to "do some research" in order to spot genuine bargains during the 27 November sale.
Retailers including Amazon, Argos and John Lewis said they offered good deals all year round, not just during seasonal shopping events.
Many shoppers see Black Friday as a way to buy gifts cheaply before Christmas.
More than two-thirds have delayed a purchase to try to find a bargain in the sale, according to Lloyds Bank.
It expects Black Friday spending in the UK to soar to £750m this year.

Which? tracked the prices of 219 popular home and tech products for six months before the 2019 sale and for six months afterwards.
It looked at goods from Amazon, AO.com, Argos, Currys PC World and John Lewis and found only three items were at their cheapest on Black Friday.
Natalie Hitchins, head of home products and services at Which?, said: "Deals that look too good to be true often are, so don't fall for time-limited offers and if you are looking for something in particular, do some research first.
"That way you'll know a genuine bargain when you see one."

'Low prices all year round'
Currys PC World was the retailer most likely to have cheaper or similar pricing earlier in the year.
For example, a pair of Bose Quietcomfort headphones at the retailer was £249 on Black Friday but had been cheaper or the same price on at least 15 occasions in the previous six months.
At John Lewis, 70 of 78 products were found to have cost the same or less before the sale.
For example, a De'Longhi coffee machine cost £1,285 on Black Friday, but had cost the same or less on at least 35 occasions beforehand - falling to less than £1,200 on several days in May and June 2019.
Amazon came out top of the retailers Which? looked at, although over half (57%) of its products were available cheaper or for the same price in the six months before Black Friday.
Responding to the research, most retailers stressed that they price-matched throughout the year.
  • Amazon said: "We seek to offer our customers great value thanks to low prices all year round as well as a number of fantastic seasonal deals events."
  • AO World said:"Last year's Black Friday event had over 9,000 fantastic and fair offers for customers and we expect this year to be even bigger."
  • Argos said: "Our Black Friday event gives customers access to hundreds of products at their lowest ever price. They may also be part of sales and promotions we run the following year."
  • Currys PC World said it price-matched throughout the year and has additional sales "to ensure we keep our promise of amazing tech that is affordable and accessible".
  • John Lewis said: "In addition to the variety of offers we have in-store and online during the promotional period, our never knowingly undersold price promise means that we continuously monitor and match the prices of our high street competitors throughout the year."

Fraud warning
Shoppers are also being warned to watch out for Black Friday scams.
Barclays said consumers who fall victim to an online scam this week could lose an average of £735 each.
Electronics, trainers, phones and clothing are all popular products used to trick people.
Criminals set up fake websites and may offer goods that are bogus, shoddy, or never arrive.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55058121
 
All those fights over giant TV's that they could have probably got for the same price in January.
 
And here's me thinking that big retailers were genuine in trying to help the public - and really Black Friday is just a marketing scam - who would have guessed?

I am sure any Christmas offers we see will be genuine though and not some buying frenzy fueled by marketing people
 
I always make sure I know what I want and I know how much I would normally pay for it.

I’ve had a few bargains this year so far - bottle of whisky for my parents Christmas £12 cheaper than elsewhere; 2kg of coffee beans for £8; Nintendo Switch deal on behalf of Santa; wife’s usual “everyday” perfume less than half price.
 
Since the eldest daughter moved back out and took her shelving unit, I got a large wooden corner tv unit to replace it in the conservatory.

The mrs found it advertised on Facebook or whatever.
When I picked it up the lady asked if I also wanted a 12 bottle wine rack .

Both free 👍😁

The draw in the middle houses bottles of pectolase, yeast nutrient, citric acid, hydrometer, etc etc, and some kits fit nicely in the side compartments.

Bargain 🤣
 
When buying from Amazon, simply copy and paste the Amazon product page URL into the search box at the top of this site:

https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/
It'll show you the price history for the product so you can tell instantly whether it's been jacked up for the "sale". As an example I clicked on Amazon's black friday deals page and clicked a random expensive tech product. Yes it's been reduced but you could have had it the same or cheaper at the end of 2019.

1606293888419.png


Another equally random tech product from the same page shows that this is a genuine deal so they are there if you look.

1606294027754.png
 
I do think most of our brewing suppliers are genuine. Last year I wanted to buy a Grainfather and was looking at prices, or a secondhand one, for months then went to last years Brewcon early November where a couple of suppliers told me to wait a few weeks. Black Friday week a few suppliers offered good discounts and the price went back to normal after a week or so.
 
When buying from Amazon, simply copy and paste the Amazon product page URL into the search box at the top of this site:

https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/
It'll show you the price history for the product so you can tell instantly whether it's been jacked up for the "sale". As an example I clicked on Amazon's black friday deals page and clicked a random expensive tech product. Yes it's been reduced but you could have had it the same or cheaper at the end of 2019.

View attachment 36333

Another equally random tech product from the same page shows that this is a genuine deal so they are there if you look.

View attachment 36334
TBF, even with the top one it’s still the cheapest it’s been since February so it’s still a genuine saving. If you didn’t need a new monitor a year ago, then the fact you could have got it £15 cheaper last December is irrelevant - it’s still at least £100 cheaper than it has been all year, bar a week in February (which I suspect was probably another “Amazon Prime Day” or something).

For example I’ve been watching 2 TVs for a couple of months in anticipation for our garage conversion in January. If one of them is significantly cheaper between now and January than they were when I started looking back in September I’ll be very happy that I’ve got a bargain. I’m not really too bothered if it was the same price or £20 cheaper a year ago because I wasn’t in the market for a telly then.

The ones I have a problem with are where it was the same price a month or 2 ago and they have literally increased the price for 6 weeks so they can claim it’s a bargain. Or bought in especially for Black Friday like the “Toshiba” TV my wife sent me a link to yesterday which I had to explain that the reason it was so cheap is because it’s a rebadged Turkish Vestel telly and no different to the Blaupunkt and Polaroid tellies Tesco were pumping out a few years back.
 
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