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

bbc.com

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

#21

Post by mumblemumble »

maccard wrote: post #5
zeppers wrote: post #4

I worked in retail sales from 2004-2006 and I remember management ordering us to increase prices on items leading up to big sales. It seemed like fraud and it made me feel icky doing it. Especially when we would replace labels of an item that cost $99 to say that it cost $139 and was now on sale for $99. Luckily I haven't had to work in retail since...

> It seemed like fraud and it made me feel icky doing it. In many places, it _is_ fraud (well, illegal but still). In the UK, the higher price must have been offered for 28 days out of the last 6 months.

I suppose you can just pick the slowest 15% of days, then. If a price was randomly jacked up on a Tuesday, but nobody was around to buy it, was it really raised?

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

#22

Post by speeder »

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…

Here in Brazil this year I saw a bunch of Black November. Yes, in english, in a country where people normally don't know english.

Even weirder, is today a cosmetics company said that "Black Friday" (in english like that!) is a racist name and they are comitted to changing it.

Most people here don't even know what "Black" means. (or "Friday", for that matter).

The amount of USA culture "invading" our culture is really disturbing me. (alongside some other stuff like Coca-Cola in fur coat red santa, in the middle of our super hot summers, or people trying to plant conifer trees in sunny wetlands and then covering them with artificial snow, or the dish "Rosquinha", that got renamed "Donut" after Dunkin Donuts came here).

EDIT: remembered that some years ago the government made illegal for stores to write only in english on their storefronts, after there was a huge mania for writing "xxx% off on randomproduct" and this was causing confusion among consumers that had no idea what that means.

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

#23

Post by hogFeast »

belval wrote: post #20
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.

The reason why it has spread is American retailers, particularly Amazon, entering international markets.

In the US, Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year so American retailers discounted on that day. As they went into other countries, they began offering sales on that day too. In the UK, Boxing Day was traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year but most shops close on this day now. Wikipedia tells me that Boxing Day used to be the busiest shopping day in Canada.

I think the reason the practice is spreading into the rest of the month is because of the higher level of competition online. One retailer does Black Friday, then another retailer tries to jump earlier, then another. In the UK, we have had companies trying weekly and monthly sales.

The sales aren't bad, I think some retailers (Amazon, particularly) don't offer great value...ironic given they started Black Friday here in the UK...but if you hunt about, you can usually find some decent deals.

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

#24

Post by [deleted] »

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...

[deleted]

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

#25

Post by orev »

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.

Black Friday is only associated with Thanksgiving in the US because it marks just about 1 month before Christmas, but otherwise it’s not part of Thanksgiving. It’s also to start selling products for Christmas gifts — not related to getting rid of unsold inventory.

Most companies have a fiscal year ending in December, so it’s mostly just about getting that last boost of sales before the end of the year.

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

#27

Post by tamaharbor »

I remember when Black Friday meant tremendous free-after-rebate deals… Among other things, I recall ‘purchasing’ a free inkjet color printer, a free PDA (personal digital assistant), and a free spool of 50 blank cds! Those were the days.

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

#28

Post by comprev »

smnrchrds wrote: post #16
mianos wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's long believed there's a loophole in UK law which allows these types of "continuous sales" tactics. Provided the product is available at RRP in _one_ of the shops within the same company (i.e. a chain) for a minimum time period (say, 60 days), it can be priced as a "discount" in another store.

The trick used it to have a shop in the middle of nowhere (for example, north Scotland) which rotates products on the shop floor. This shop operates purely at a loss except for some desperate customers who will pay through the nose for a product due to convenience.

A mattress would be for sale at GBP 999 for 60 days there, and promoted as a discount at GBP 499 in _every other store_ they own. They make profit on selling 50x products at the discount vs. a single product at original price.

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

#30

Post by DarkUranium »

mthoms wrote: post #8
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's probably illegal (depending on region). I'd consider reporting it.

Definitely illegal, everywhere. He said "euros", which implies within the EU. It's illegal across the EU.
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