Black Friday: are you really getting a good deal?

I can honestly say I’ve never actively sought to shop in the Black Friday sales and am yet to be taken in by this recent shopping phenomenon.

However, that may well change – having recently set up home, I seem to have spent a fair whack on appliances over the past few months, but I’m still lacking a dishwasher.

As this is a fairly non-essential appliance, my plan has been to wait for Black Friday to hopefully nab a bargain. But new Which? research has left me wondering if these sales are really all they’re cracked up to be.

Black Friday deals

Last year, more than £1bn was spent in the UK on Black Friday, but our research into the 2015 Black Friday sales has cast a light on some questionable savings.

We price tracked 20 popular types of tech gadgets and home appliances sold by five major retailers (Amazon, AO, Argos, Currys and John Lewis) in the three months leading up to Black Friday, and the two months after.

But instead of seeing all prices drop during the sales period, we found that only half of the products sold were at their cheapest on Black Friday. The remainder were cheaper either before or after the day.

In fact, one in ten were cheaper at some point in the months leading up to sales event.

We also found that retailers AO and Currys appeared to inflate the ‘was’ price, making discounts look a lot more impressive than they actually were. Many of you will know that the ‘was’ price should actually be the most recent price a product was sold at for at least 28 consecutive days.

And although we found that one in ten discounted products were cheaper on Black Friday than on any other day, four in 10 were cheaper in the weeks after it.

Dud deals

So it seems to me that while there may be some bargains to be had in the Black Friday sales, there are plenty of dud deals, too.

If you’re thinking of searching for bargains next week, don’t be fooled by advertised ‘was’ prices – do your research and check out the prices in the days leading up to sales. This way, you’ll know whether it’s a dud deal or not.

It’s also worth shopping with retailers with price promises so you can get a refund if the product drops in price in the weeks after your purchase.

I’ll be keeping a close eye on the advertised prices for the dishwasher I’m after, as I’m still hopeful I can make a saving on Black Friday. Should that fail, I’ll stick to my Marigolds and Fairy until the January sales…

Are you looking to grab a bargain in this year’s sales? Have you spotted any questionable savings recently?

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