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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

#181

Post by poloniculmov »

lordnacho wrote: post #155
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Just like how for singles day in Asia, retailers shamelessly just jack prices up beforehand to make their sale prices look like discounts. This would be illegal in Denmark https://www.forbrugerombudsmanden.dk/hvad-gaelder/markedsfoe... English >If an item, for example, has cost DKK 1,000 throughout the year, and it is set up to DKK 1,500 for 6 weeks and then comes on “sale” for DKK 1,000 again, this is misleading, w…

Question is whether this is enforced? Is there a way to fine firms? Can you complain about them?

We have a similar law in Romania, the agency for consumer protection fined all major retailers for our Black Friday event and even temporarily closed a website until they changed prices to match reality. The fines weren't that big so I'm not sure that they won't do it again for the next sales period.

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

#182

Post by mytailorisrich »

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...

What is described is not illegal in itself. Prices are free.

What is illegal in many places is to increase the price for a very short period in order to then advertise an item as "on sale" with advertised discount based on inflated price, which is exactly what happened in the case you've linked to.

So advertising "was 739 now only 699" may be illegal, but listing at 739 the day before Black Friday then at 699 on Black Friday is not.

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

#184

Post by benrapscallion »

noisy_boy wrote: post #118

My grandma used to say about discounts that they are all frauds to push items that they can't sell by first jacking up the prices and then putting a "discounted" price on it. I used to (naively) think that grandma just doesn't understand. Turns out, she understood pretty well.

“You can go broke trying to save money”

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

#185

Post by danlugo92 »

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.

How do you say it in portuguese?

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

#187

Post by VRay »

allen_lasn wrote: post #173
toast0 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was salaried, the marginal value of my time was $0. Thar extra thirty minutes shopping costs me nothing and gives me satisfaction. Now that I'm retired, my marginal value is still $0. Taking longer to spend money is in itself valuable. If I get discouraged by the shopping and don't buy the item I was looking for, that's the best outcome for my wallet.

The marginal value of your time was not $0. You could have been doing something other than shopping with your time. That thing could have afforded you pleasure or had some other utility. The dollar value of that utility was not zero. Even resting has some benefit to you. Unless your only alternative is some mildly unpleasant activity which doesn't allow you to rest, that time was not valueless.

> Unless your only alternative is some mildly unpleasant activity which doesn't allow you to rest, that time was not valueless.

So you're saying I shouldn't be playing MMORPGs all the time?

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

#188

Post by 01acheru »

danlugo92 wrote: post #185
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.

How do you say it in portuguese?

Black frode, I cannot write in phonetic alphabet but the sound is quite similar to Friday (especially as pronounced in some states)

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

#189

Post by salamandersauce »

ayngg wrote: post #92
pirate787 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Sorry, I didn't mean that what I said was the origin, only that was what it was marketed as around that period, and I should clarify my context that I was talking about what it was like in Canada, where it has only relatively recently become a thing. I guess what I meant to refer to was its etymological shift from the "selling excess stock" narrative in America (which itself was just a rebranding of the previous mean…

Yeah it wasn't really a thing in Canada when I was kid and Boxing Day was the big sale day. Wikipedia says it started here because we hit par with USD and retailers wanted to keep people from just doing all their holiday shopping in the U.S.

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

#190

Post by skocznymroczny »

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.

Same in Poland, we have many days, one of the more popular is "Black Frajerday", Frajerday meaning Sucker Day. Our deals aren't even that good. The prices rise over few weeks before, and then you get 10% or 15% discounts which usually are above the base price anyway. At least in the US, especially for virtual goods you can find some actual 70-90% discounts.
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