To think shops areplaying a game with "Black Friday".

[BecauseIamaBear]

DP has been researching fro a new laptop. Has identified a model at a price she thought was good value..

Suddenly today the price has gone up by £150! Suspicion is that come Black Friday it will be on sale with a big discount down to the price from last week...

Has anyone else got their eye on something? If so are you watching the price? It would be a big MN coup if lots of us was to look out for price changes and indeed the retailers are playing a game..

Of course they are. Something has to have been on sale previously at the higher price for at least 28 days before they can class it as a sale offer. My bet is it isn't reduced to much more than the price you saw the item at before the price hike.

Last year I bought some new pans in he Black Friday extravaganza sale. Huuuughgggeeeee discounts etc.

Same pans, same price in Boxing Day sale.

I don't think the uk should bother with black Friday it's an American accounting thing. Makes less sense here

Urgh Black Friday here just looks like a mess of bad tempered pushy types fighting to the front of Asda for a weird brand of telly that looks good because it's big.

Of course they're playing a game. There will be a handful of loss leaders to draw your eye then they have your confidence that everything labelled as a black Friday deal is good value you so you buy more.

The shops don't do black Friday to lose money (this is how Amazon became such a big players too)

The thing is Black Friday is actually a proper thing in America - because for them Thanksgiving (end of November) is a bigger deal than Xmas - so Black Friday is like their equivalent of Boxing Day sales and you can actually pick up some great bargains. But it's not like they do it all again a month later on Dec 26th.

Here they've just nicked the term to try and encourage people to spend even more before Xmas under the false pretences they're getting it cheaper.

No shit Sherlock.

It's total manipulation in to getting is to overspend & nab a bargain.

YANBU, it's wank

I only use Black Friday for the majority of clothes shops and other small family run places that wouldn't normally offer a discount. I avoid all the electrical stuff and wait for the Boxing Day sales instead

I work in a shop, big out of town retailer with 100 or so stores. There are some things which are always on offer - a particular thing is always 'half price' at £12 and in the 3 years I've worked there the only time I've seen it for sale at £24 is just before Black Friday. And then they put it back down to £12 for BF, it's stupid and if you've been in the shop more than once you'll know it's not a proper deal.

I've bought a few things during the Lightning deals on Amazon during Black Friday week but I've never fancied joining the scrums in shops to try to get one of the ten tellies they have in stock for £20 or whatever it is. Being elbowed in the face by a bargain hunting maniac doesn't sound like fun.

They all do it all the time. Because people are conditioned to buy things now if the big sign says HALF PRICE.

When was the last time DFS didn't have a sale on, that ends this Sunday?

When did you see that wine that you always buy at half price at full price?

When was there not a voucher available to eat at Pizza Express, Dominos etc (there are exceptions to this such as weekeds and Bank Holidays but there are always offers at the rest of the time).

I use jet2 and Jet2holidays quite a lot and I don't think I have ever seen a holiday that didn't have £100 off pp.

If you want a good deal, you need to do your research to work out what the price of an item is supposed to be, not rely on the company selling you the item to tell you that it's at a 'Buy Now Never To Be Repeated Special Deal' because more often than not, it isn't.

Last year I got a Fitbit charge HR for £50 delivered, still the best price I've ever seen it by a good £20.

The year before I bought a Kitchenaid from Debenhams in the BF sales, stacked a couple online coupons and paid about £245 for it- again by far the cheapest I've ever seen it brand new.

BF sale can be ok if you have something specific that you want that you've already done your homework on, so you know how much is a good deal and then if you can. Eat the standard good deal you know you're onto a winner.

*beat (not eat)

So how can we ... shop the offenders?

I don't think it's about shopping the offenders - I think it's about educating everyone to be a lot more savvy. Like your dp who has done the research and knows what a good price is for that laptop - so now you wait and see... I'm keeping an eye out for a fitbit this year but happy to bide my time and wait for a good price whether that's on black Friday or boxing day. There are are loads of websites that can help - money saving expert is good, camelcamelcamel is great for tracking prices on Amazon etc.

Just don't play.

Remember last year ? All the TV stations had broadcasters at all the major shopping centres - and - nothing
The shops were empty, the car parks were empty, and a lot of shops ended up paying staff to work overtime in empty shops

Be canny, do your research, keep your eyes open, and grab a bargain.

Or be a stingy cow like me and put a very low maximum spend on Christmas presents

Of course.

It's not a coup, this is well known.
Don't shop the sales, wait until the price has evened out to buy.

Shops do this all year round for sales, the artificial boost means they can say it's now X% off.

Of course it's a game the same way the headline 'sale' prices where items have been 'reduced' from the price they were offered at for a nanosecond in the arse end of nowhere are a game.

There are genuine bargains to be had but black Friday is unlikely to see many of them.

I think it depends on what you want to buy. Last yr on black Friday John lewis had 20% off all handbags so I bought myself a classic mulberry style in a classic colour that will last me for years. That style and colour would never be in the sale and the price never gets increased or decreased in the lead up to black Friday so I am happy that I did get a 'real' 20% off.

For items like laptops though I agree they put the price up just so they can bring it down on black Friday.