Your views: Black Friday 2017

Has anybody a rebuttal to Bishbut,s down to earth and I have to say honest opinion on actual actions on Which . Having said that I do understand the motivation for Which doing it but I would like to hear from some regulars as to whether he has a point or not. I know the advertising department are doing a good job aiming for mass popularity while doing an online polling situation in , as Bishbut would say ( and me ) “American style ” and it works.

Interestingly, I had the opposite experience some years ago, when there was evidence Which? ignored Apple products entirely in favour of Microsft’s sometimes dismal offerings. Their argument at the time was that too few members owned Apple equipment. Now, if that rationale remains the same, it’s the reason why they cover Apple stuff a lot, now.

My argument at the time was that unless a consumer body such as Which? covered the high quality of Apple products fairly, there never would be enough members owning the stuff and surely when reviewing software they should show all the software, and not simply that from a single supplier.

I don’t agree they dwell on Amazon; but a lot of W? subscribers routinely buy through that company, so they should be covered – warts and all.

To be fair to Which?, its latest laptop review provides great value and best buy recommendations at prices from £195 to £1099. Both Apple and Windows PCs are represented (but no Chromebooks).

These days, I doubt that average “gumby” home user needs anything more complicated than a Chromebook – but that’s a separate topic. Other folk with hobbies like photo or video editing, or anything else that needs bespoke software, have reasonable grounds to want more powerful PCs and some may obviously prefer to use the same OS at home as they do at work.

I think Which tend to review products based on their notions of who their readership are, and how much money they are prepared to spend. So if Which? is putting too much focus on the review of “stupidly expensive” products, as opposed to “cheap and cheerful” ones, then us subscribers are to blame.

Which? is a consumer service operated by the Consumers’ Association for consumers who, in most cases, are people who are active consumerists and adherents to consumerism. Black Friday is the apogee of consumerism and should not be ignored.

Which? offers sound advice on how to survive the unfair and exploitative aspects of trading around Black Friday. Whether it comes from America or not is irrelevant if it helps people fulfill their wishes. I don’t take advantage of Black Friday myself but see no reason to decry it. It stimulates trade, enables people to save money on things they do want or need, and takes some of the pressure off the last week or two before Christmas when exploitation is rampant.

Many people target Black Friday for the their major purchases and organise their finances accordingly. For some it is an opportunity to buy a higher specification item at no extra cost than they would otherwise have bought. Really it’s no different to the January sales except it is compressed into a shorter period.

I don’t buy the argument that people use Black Friday to purchase things they don’t want or need – consumers are not that daft and there are no media reports of extensive aftermath misery. The hype has cooled down now and most trade has switched to the internet so panic and stampedes at shop doorways are no longer an issue; crashing websites seems to be the bugbear now but at least no one gets hurt.