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Black Friday 2019: Are the deals as good as they seem? Posted On 27 November 2019

Early Black Friday deals have already arrived; but are the deals any good?

Black Friday; a date in your calendar that you can never get away from. However, how good are the ‘limited-time sales?’ and what’s the history of the day itself?

The name Black Friday originated for the name of the day after Thanksgiving Day in the United States. The term itself is said to have come from the name the Police gave to the crowds and traffic congestion accompanying the start of the Christmas shopping season in Philadelphia in the 1960s.

Since 2005, Black Friday has been the busiest shopping day of the year for Americans with some companies and States observing it is a holiday; thus making it a four-day weekend. Like the Boxing Day sales in the UK, families will spend this extra day shopping.

With the popularity of the sales and online shopping, it is no surprise that it has now gone worldwide – with many retailers starting their sales early and spreading them throughout the month of November. The biggest retailers in the UK such as Amazon, Currys, Argos and John Lewis already have sales on celebrating Black Friday.

However, are any of the deals any good?

A report by Which? suggests that the sales offer only a few real deals, with most of the goods available at a similar price or cheaper throughout the year. Which? tracked 83 products over a six-month period leading up to Black Friday 2018, and only four out of the 83 were cheaper during the Black Friday deals.

The trick that Black Friday uses is one of the oldest sales tricks of all-time: a time-limited sale. It’s simple, by shouting in our faces through marketing that a certain product will only be available at this great price for X amount of days, we feel under pressure to make a purchase that we don’t really need.

Amazon were the first company to bite back towards the Which? report, saying: “The claim from Which? regarding Echo is false, and we have made this clear in our response to them. Amazon.co.uk customers were not able to buy the Echo (2nd gen) device cheaper before Black Friday 2018.”

It’s no surprise that Amazon would be the company to defend Black Friday, especially when you take into account that it is the busiest time of the year for the company and that they account for over 40% of all Black Friday purchases!

Not that there aren’t any good deals to be had, just take your time to do your research before making an impulse buy. Just because something is on ‘sale’ that doesn’t mean you should get your credit card out. Like anything, there may be a better deal out there without the time-limits.

Black Friday officially starts on the 29th November 2019.

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