Just one in 20 so-called Black Friday “deals” are cheaper during the shopping bonanza than at other times of the year, an investigation from Which? has found.
Ahead of this year’s Black Friday on November 29, the consumer group said it had found “few genuine discounts” after monitoring sales pricing around the event last year.
It tracked the prices of 83 products on sale on Black Friday last year – starting from six months before the day itself to six months afterwards.
The consumer champion looked at deals from retailers including Currys PC World, Amazon and John Lewis, and found just four products (5 per cent) that were cheaper on Black Friday than at other times of the year.
Which? found that six in 10 (61%) of the products on offer – which included speakers, soundbars and kitchen appliances – were cheaper or the same price on at least one day in the six months before the annual sales event in November last year.
When looking at the two-week period surrounding Black Friday itself – including sales prices in the week before and after – Which? found that three quarters (74%) of products were cheaper or the same price in the six months after.
While Which? did not find evidence of retailers breaking the law, the consumer champion is concerned that shoppers are at risk of being confused by enticing Black Friday offers.
It is urging shoppers to not get carried away by the hype of Black Friday sales and to do their research to assess whether the price and quality of the product they are considering makes it the right deal for them.
Natalie Hitchins, Which? head of home products and services, said: “We have repeatedly shown that ‘deals’ touted by retailers on Black Friday are not as good as they seem.
“Time-limited sales can be a good opportunity to bag a bargain, but don’t fall for the pressure tactics around Black Friday.
“Our investigation indicates that this popular shopping event is all hype and there are few genuine discounts.”
Amazon told Which?: “Our Black Friday sale is about thousands of deals on a huge selection of products from every category across the site, at a time of year when we know saving money is important to our customers.
“And the best thing about shopping online is that customers can easily compare prices, allowing them to make an informed purchase decision.”
Currys PC World told the consumer group: “Our customers tell us that they appreciate the increased choice during Black Friday where we have the most deals on at once.
“When we launched our Black Friday event last year, 40% of those products were the lowest price they had ever been.”
John Lewis said: “In addition to the variety of offers we have in-store and online during the Black Friday period, our commitment to being ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ means that we continuously monitor and match the prices of our high street competitors throughout the year.
“As such, we offer our customers the best value on the high street all year round, including during the Black Friday period.”
British shoppers are predicted to spend an estimated £5.6 billion on Friday.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here