90% of Black Friday deals were the same price or cheaper six months before • Hacker News Board

Re: 90% of Black Friday deals were the same price or cheaper six months before

#11

Post by gaius_baltar » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 10:16 PM UTC

This have been a joke for a few years here in Brazil, we call the day "Black Fraud" (sounds a little better in Portuguese)

The relevant point is that Black Friday is an "artificial" event here: we do not celebrate Thanksgiving Day so there is no need for a the stores to get rid of unsold inventory. It started just ~10 years ago when marketers began advertising it as a sales day.

Re: 90% of Black Friday deals were the same price or cheaper six months before

#12

Post by williamdclt » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 10:23 PM UTC

dvh wrote: post #9

sveme wrote: post #6

I'm currently in the market for a dryer and checked the prices the last couple of days. It went from 649 Euros a week ago up to 739 Euros today. Fully expect it to fall back to 699 Euros tomorrow.

I'm curious, why put prices back? Why not leave it at elevated levels?

Tomorrow is the sale, they've raised the price in preparation for the sale

Re: 90% of Black Friday deals were the same price or cheaper six months before

#13

Post by conqrr » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 10:24 PM UTC

Have seen this on everty single TV deal on Amazon at camelcamelcamel price history. Doesn't look like a good to buy a TV

Re: 90% of Black Friday deals were the same price or cheaper six months before

#14

Post by saurik » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 10:24 PM UTC

dvh wrote: post #9

sveme wrote: post #6

I'm currently in the market for a dryer and checked the prices the last couple of days. It went from 649 Euros a week ago up to 739 Euros today. Fully expect it to fall back to 699 Euros tomorrow.

I'm curious, why put prices back? Why not leave it at elevated levels?

So you can say there's a Black Friday sale, which is the premise behind why the prices went up in the first place: so they could be lowered for a sale.

Re: 90% of Black Friday deals were the same price or cheaper six months before

#15

Post by smnrchrds » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 10:24 PM UTC

gaius_baltar wrote: post #11

This have been a joke for a few years here in Brazil, we call the day "Black Fraud" (sounds a little better in Portuguese) The relevant point is that Black Friday is an "artificial" event here: we do not celebrate Thanksgiving Day so there is no need for a the stores to get rid of unsold inventory. It started just ~10 years ago when marketers began advertising it as a sales day.

Iranian companies are now advertising Black Friday sales. Even though in Iran we do not celebrate Thanksgiving, we do not celebrate Christmas (except for Christians of course), and even our new year starts at spring equinox in late March. Black Friday is literally a random day in fall which has no significance. Yet there are Black Friday sales now.

Re: 90% of Black Friday deals were the same price or cheaper six months before

#16

Post by smnrchrds » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 10:28 PM UTC

mianos wrote: post #10

sveme wrote: post #6

I'm currently in the market for a dryer and checked the prices the last couple of days. It went from 649 Euros a week ago up to 739 Euros today. Fully expect it to fall back to 699 Euros tomorrow.

That is clearly illegal down here in Australia. One of the largest on line retailers here, Kogan, was even prosecuted: https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/kogan-to-pay-350000-fo...

Does the law catch the retailer who have to products with identical specs and different model numbers? Mattress companies have long used the trick to advertise permanent sale pricing that is just standard pricing in North America.

Re: 90% of Black Friday deals were the same price or cheaper six months before

#17

Post by Animats » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 10:33 PM UTC

It's Buy Nothing Day, per Adbusters.

Re: 90% of Black Friday deals were the same price or cheaper six months before

#18

Post by magicalhippo » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 10:34 PM UTC

Here in Norway we didn't have Black Friday until like a decade ago or so, when shops started introducing it. They even had to explain what it was all about in the ads.

Now it's no longer Black Friday, no... now we have Black Week and even Black November, filled with 10% off prices or deep discounts on old junk nobody wanted...

There's still a few really good deals, and there's a positive to concentrating the deals to one day: you're looking for deals. Doesn't help me that a thing was off even more a few months ago if I missed it then.

Re: 90% of Black Friday deals were the same price or cheaper six months before

#19

Post by mtmail » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 10:35 PM UTC

gaius_baltar wrote: post #11

This have been a joke for a few years here in Brazil, we call the day "Black Fraud" (sounds a little better in Portuguese) The relevant point is that Black Friday is an "artificial" event here: we do not celebrate Thanksgiving Day so there is no need for a the stores to get rid of unsold inventory. It started just ~10 years ago when marketers began advertising it as a sales day.

Stores in Europe advertise "Black Week". I've seen "Single's Day" sales even (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singles%27_Day#Outside_China).

Re: 90% of Black Friday deals were the same price or cheaper six months before

#20

Post by belval » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 10:40 PM UTC

magicalhippo wrote: post #18

Here in Norway we didn't have Black Friday until like a decade ago or so, when shops started introducing it. They even had to explain what it was all about in the ads. Now it's no longer Black Friday, no... now we have Black Week and even Black November, filled with 10% off prices or deep discounts on old junk nobody wanted... There's still a few really good deals, and there's a positive to concentrating the deals to…

Same in Canada, the funny part is that we do have thanksgiving but it's actually a month earlier so Black Friday is just sitting in November for no reason other than to nudge people into doing their Christmas shopping.