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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

#81

Post by dougmwne »

julianlam wrote: post #70
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 AliExpre…

I used to chase these kinds of deals, but if you stop to think about it, spending hours to optimize for $10 is almost certainly a terrible waste compared to what you could have been doing with that time. Deal seeking always eats up many hours of time for these small gains. That analysis skill applied to any kind of business problem is easily worth thousands.

No offense intended if this is pure stamp collecting.

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

#82

Post by emodendroket »

iJohnDoe wrote: post #42

Seeing this on Black Friday deals. Something is reduced by $150 for Black Friday, but it turns out the sale price is the normal price you would find anywhere. Double check prices before buying anything else today and tomorrow

Another trick is just producing a Black Friday model that lacks features the more expensive one has.

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

#83

Post by analog31 »

zoomablemind wrote: post #45

C'mon, guys, there are genuine BF discounts. They do exist! And people do know the deal value, when they see it. The retailers don't have to discount everything on the floor, they just need the traffic. Once in, some items could still be purchased as valued, the discounts on some items help pull the people in. And sure, the mood and expectation helps. It is a balancing act, but marketing does not equal cheating, some…

Amusingly I just told my spouse about the article, and she said: "Why make things cheaper when you've already got them rushing into the store because it's black friday?"

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

#84

Post by cfjgvjh »

dougmwne wrote: post #81
julianlam wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 AliExpre…

I used to chase these kinds of deals, but if you stop to think about it, spending hours to optimize for $10 is almost certainly a terrible waste compared to what you could have been doing with that time. Deal seeking always eats up many hours of time for these small gains. That analysis skill applied to any kind of business problem is easily worth thousands. No offense intended if this is pure stamp collecting.

That only works if the use of that time towards a more productive activity actually pays off in that short duration; sometimes comparing shops and making sure you're getting the best is the most fun part, so there's some utility derived from there as well. At least for myself, I only really deal-hunt during Black Friday and anytime else I get what I need when I need them.

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

#85

Post by dehrmann »

loonster wrote: post #34
robbedpeter wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best time to get a new TV is the week after the super bowl, get the tvs that were returned. I imagine the same applies to world cup and other sporting events that prompt people to buy a massive TV just to return it a few days later, after they show it off at the party.

IIRC, new TV models usually come out in late spring / early summer. So best time to buy should be around then.

Post CES?

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

#86

Post by [deleted] »

colechristensen wrote: post #76
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 remember the day after Thanksgiving being a day my relatives (at least the ones interested in shopping in malls, etc) being excited about going shopping. Lots of people had the day off, originally I think "black Friday" just meant that stores were really busy.

[deleted]

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

#87

Post by AussieWog93 »

dougmwne wrote: post #81
julianlam wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 AliExpre…

I used to chase these kinds of deals, but if you stop to think about it, spending hours to optimize for $10 is almost certainly a terrible waste compared to what you could have been doing with that time. Deal seeking always eats up many hours of time for these small gains. That analysis skill applied to any kind of business problem is easily worth thousands. No offense intended if this is pure stamp collecting.

I run an e-commerce business and see the opposite as well.

People who earn, say, $30/hr won't take literally 2 seconds to scroll past the sponsored listings and save $50+.

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

#88

Post by systemvoltage »

speeder wrote: post #22
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…

It's no longer USA culture. Used to be a few decades ago when Nike and Coke was exported.

Today, it is a giant global corporate-driven monoculture. US has influx of many other cultures too (Sushi restaurants were hardly a thing in the 90's and Yoga).

To be honest, the world has gotten worse with globalisation and I don't mean that in the slightest political sense. Purely from cutural standpoint, the internet has sort of ruined isolated pockets of culture that thrive independently. In 2050, it will just be a giant same-everywhere Earth culture that will suck, even more so than today.

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

#89

Post by makeitdouble »

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…

To me there is two specific aspect of Black Friday that make it special for online shopping:

- retailers are showcasing a limited number of goods that they expect to sell fast.

This means short delivery times, no weird third party shipping from obscure places. They are prepared, and even buying at the same price as usual, the experience tends to be better.

- the piling up effect makes it worse for delivery, worker conditions are probably worse, even if they get paid some amount more than usual.

This makes it a very mixed bag, and I wish we had a better grip on the second point, to be able to fully appreciate the first one.

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

#90

Post by busymom0 »

I purchased a 27 inch Dell monitor a month ago and paid $295 total after taxes here in Canada. A month after my purchase, I could have gotten it for $20 cheaper ($275 after taxes).

However, now if I try to do the same, it comes out to $306 after taxes for Black Friday sales....

https://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/dell-27-monitor-s2721ds/apd/...

It's an excellent monitor btw, just wait for the price to go down a bit again.

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