Is Black Friday really the best day to shop?
ARE you poised at the ready, waiting for Friday, November 25 to arrive so you can open up your purse and splash out on those highly anticipated bargains?
Well new claims may make you want to take a step back.
Almost half of last year’s Black Friday deals were cheaper during other times of the year, according to an investigation by Which?
The consumer experts found 49 per cent of products which claimed to be ‘on offer’ were actually cheaper during other months.
Last year, the comparison website monitored deals on gadgets from some of the big Black Friday players, including Argos, Currys, Amazon, AO and John Lewis, for three months running up to and two months following Black Friday.
Fewer than eight per cent were one-day only offers.
Fewer than one in 10 of the discounts were one-day only offers, just for Black Friday, and four in 10 products were cheaper in the weeks following Black Friday.
Pete Moorey, head of campaigns for Which?, said: “Shoppers might be surprised to learn that only half of Black Friday deals are actually cheapest on Black Friday.
“If you’re thinking about starting your Christmas shopping around Black Friday, do your research as some ‘deals’ may not be all they’re cracked up to be.”
Furthermore, Which? said it discovered examples of where retailers AO and Currys had appeared to inflate the ‘ was’ price ‘ to make deals look better than they actually are’.
A Which? spokesman said: “When promoting a discount like ‘ was £100, now £50’, the ‘was’ price should be the most recent price the item was sold at for 28 consecutive days or more, and not a price that is more than six months old.”
The company said it found examples of where this had not been done.
In response to the claims, Which? said: “Currys explained that keeping prices low after an event like Black Friday is good for shoppers.
“Likewise, AO said that some products may remain on promotion beyond Black Friday, adding that this gives customers ‘great deals beyond just the one day a year’.”
Which? added: “Both retailers claimed that they had followed the regulations and guidelines with regard to displaying discounts.”