BLACK FAKE FRIDAY

Thought it was the day to bag a bargain? In fact, 6 in 10 of last year’s ‘deals’ weren’t what they seemed. So before you spend, here’s how not to get duped by . . .

SINCE it was gleefully adopted by the UK seven years ago, the name Black Friday has been synonymous with amazing, money-saving deals.

It is the day when, for a glorious 24 hours of plummeting prices and discounts, the consumer appears to come out on top — and, this year, it’s at the end of this week.

Originally an American concept, Black Friday falls the day after their Thanksgiving holiday and marks the start of the Christmas shopping season. In Britain, it’s simply seen as a good excuse to go bargain hunting — and deals are starting earlier than ever this year.

With many shops already advertising their Black Friday offers, we’re expected to splash out £10 billion before this week is out.

But in this frenzy of spending are you really getting a good deal? In many cases, it would appear not. A year-long investigation by consumer experts Which? has found that an astonishing six out of ten of last year’s ‘deals’ were for products that were, in fact, cheaper or the same price at other times of the year.

The research tracked the prices of 35 of the most popular technology, home and personal care products on sale on Black Friday 2016, but the results throw the entire validity of the Black Friday ‘deal’ into question.

Richard Headland, editor-in-chief of Which? Magazine, says: ‘From a consumer point of view, it’s obviously very frustrating. The one day on which you assume you’re getting the best deal ever is that last Friday in November.

‘We think it’s misleading on the part of the retailers, who are happy to hype up the size of Black Friday discounts.

‘Retailers disagree, though. They argue that just because a product is included in a Black Friday sale, it doesn’t stop them discounting it at other times of year, too. That’s true, but it’s also a tacit acceptance that there may be better times to shop for a bargain.’ WHO ARE THE CULPRITS? SOME of the worst offenders were some of our top retailers and the deals make sorry reading.

There was the Neff Slide and Hide oven from Currys/PC World. It sounded like a good deal at £494.99, particularly as the retailer’s adverts claimed it had been priced at £599.99 throughout September and most of October.

But the oven was actually cheaper than the Black Friday price for at least 113 other days of the year. It cost £449.99 — £45 cheaper — just three weeks later.

A Samsung 55-inch Smart 4K Ultra HD curved TV was advertised in Currys/PC World as ‘ Save £400, now £849’, but was £50 cheaper at least 29 times in December, January and April, the same price at least seven times in April, and £79 cheaper at least 18 times in May.

There were similar anomalies with the Fitbit Blaze, a Samsung Ecobubble 8kg washing machine, and an HP Envy 4524 all-in- one wireless inkjet printer. The DeLonghi bean- to- cup coffee machine looked like a bargain last Black Friday at £349 in Currys/PC World — a huge saving on the £729.99 that the retailer’s advertising stated it had been for most of September and October.

However, Which? data showed that it was priced at £579.99 for nearly three weeks when the ad claimed it was selling at £729.99. Plus, it remained at the Black Friday price for almost all of December.

They also slipped up with a Braun 3040s Series 3 electric shaver and Sony MDR- ZX770AP on- ear headphones, among other items. An Oral B electric toothbrush from Amazon was advertised as ‘save 26 per cent — was £40.49, now £29.99’. It sounded like a good offer, until you realise it was £5 cheaper on at least two days in July.

You may feel that this casts a bit of a cloud over the whole Black Friday experience. The build-up has already been diluted by the fact that so many shops have been discounting goods all month.

There are also suggestions that UK discounts aren’t as high as those in other countries.

While online prices here were cut by an average of 12 per cent last

year, according to UK retail strategy expert Jamie Merrick, of Salesforce Commerce Cloud, they were down a whopping 29 per cent in the U.S., and 20 and 23 per cent in Germany and France respectively.

However, it seems that 31 per cent of households are planning on getting involved, and there are predictions that £1.74 million will be spent online every minute of the day itself, £3 billion will be spent over the four days from Friday to Monday and more than £10billion during the week.

Commerce consultancy Salmon expects there will be £20 billion-worth of online sales in November, overtaking December sales — which, for retailers at least, is good news.