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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

#61

Post by pirate787 »

orev wrote: post #25
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.

The history of Thanksgiving -- FDR moved the holiday to support the holiday shopping season. Black Friday has not really been about dumping excess inventory but as the beginning for the holiday shopping season..."black" references the profit retailers make, going from red to black for the year.

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/franklin-roosevelt...

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

#62

Post by pirate787 »

ayngg wrote: post #46

It has been interesting watching the concept of Black Friday (and cyber monday) evolve over the past 20 or so years from being mostly an "American big box retailer dumping excess stock" thing to "oh boy its black Friday, time to go buy stuff!" thing. The entire event has basically been undeservingly co-opted by everyone looking to cash in on hype over an event that basically doesn't even resemble what made it a thing…

This take is wrong, Black Friday has always been about the beginning of the holiday shopping season, traditionally holiday decorations started the day after Thanksgiving and the doorbuster deals are loss leaders to drive traffic to stores. Source: middle age American. Also history: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/11/24/franskgivi...

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

#63

Post by ct0 »

ziml77 wrote: post #60
fasouto wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do money by adding their affiliate code to the links. However the Amazon Affiliate TOS [0] say: (y) Unless otherwise agreed by Amazon, your Site must not have price tracking and/or price alerting functionality. I see many sites with this functionality. I don't know if they all got approved by Amazon or they are not enforcing this clause. [0] https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/operating/policies...

Maybe Amazon thinks camelcamelcamel is helping more than hurting?

Well I do use them to "time" purchases through Amazon, not look at other retailers to make my purchase location decision.

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

#64

Post by orev »

LudwigNagasena wrote: post #41
orev wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> It’s also to start selling products for Christmas gifts — not related to getting rid of unsold inventory. That seems totally related to me…

“Unsold inventory” would be understood as “items that are leftover and need to be cleared out to make room for new products”. That’s not what BF is. Many items sold for BF/Christmas are new products that have just been released (like stuff from Apple that was just released). I’m also not talking about the products that are specifically made for BF only, which are typically lower quality versions of similar products and are lures just to get people into the store.

Technically, it might be correct to say that anything not yet sold is “unsold inventory”, but that would have the same meaning and simply saying “inventory”, so adding “unsold” gives the additional implication that it’s unsold for a reason (i.e. it’s old stock, etc.)

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

#65

Post by beebeepka »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #57
ayngg wrote: post #46

It has been interesting watching the concept of Black Friday (and cyber monday) evolve over the past 20 or so years from being mostly an "American big box retailer dumping excess stock" thing to "oh boy its black Friday, time to go buy stuff!" thing. The entire event has basically been undeservingly co-opted by everyone looking to cash in on hype over an event that basically doesn't even resemble what made it a thing…

I live in slovenia. We literally have all-month black friday "deals".

Steam sales lost all meaning years ago. It happens to everything that transitions from rare to usual

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

#66

Post by pirate787 »

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...

This practice is illegal in the US. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-B...

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

#68

Post by dragonsky67 »

In Australia it's just confusing. Black Friday was named after devastating bush fires in 1938-39 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_bushfires. Any Friday that has bad bushfires on it tends to pick up the name.

Over the last 5 years or so Black Friday sales have become a thing and I always suffer some degree of dissidence at the naming, as for me at least Black Friday has always had a negative connotation.

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

#69

Post by beebeepka »

TrackerFF wrote: post #33

Norway, too. You can see that they start to ramp up the price slowly a month or two before. At least here, we have laws against bogus sales - you have to sell so and so many items for the "normal" price, or have them listed for a certain period, before you can put them on such sales. Not sure how much these (marketing) laws are enforced, though. Some 10 years ago, when everyone and their sister tried their hand at dr…

Oh wow. 5000 to just 100! Reminds me of that south park episode

"These are genuine faux sapphire earrings.

14-carat gold, 86-carat faux sapphire.

Faux is French.

It's got an X in it, but you don't pronounce it.

How do you like that for prestigious?"

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

#70

Post by julianlam »

ayngg wrote: post #46

It has been interesting watching the concept of Black Friday (and cyber monday) evolve over the past 20 or so years from being mostly an "American big box retailer dumping excess stock" thing to "oh boy its black Friday, time to go buy stuff!" thing. The entire event has basically been undeservingly co-opted by everyone looking to cash in on hype over an event that basically doesn't even resemble what made it a thing…

Sure, if you get caught up in the mania and hype of any particular "sale" and don't price compare then you're bound to get ripped off.

I wouldn't dismiss singles day, though. There were some surprisingly cheap (both in price and quality) items I picked up on singles day.

Got an AirPod clone for something like a dollar last year.

This year I picked up a coffee grinder off the official retailer for Timemore on AliExpress. The official Canadian retailer charges a 100% premium on the product. No thanks, I'll wait for it to come on the slow boat.

I waited for singles day and got it for another $10 off.

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