Is black friday a scam or should I be paying attention?
I'm new to being a regular first-hand shopper and so far haven't paid much attention to major sales. I'm curious if and how people here take advantage of black Friday offers. More general advice on planning ones purchases around sales would also be appreciated. Or is the whole concept a scam (as the memes would have me believe) and I can go back to bed?
5 Replies
I buy things I was interested in before Black Friday and the second I start to feel like I'm looking for things to buy, I stop browsing.
It's less of a scam for clothes than it would be for electronics etc (they often sell inferior versions of their products) but you are still likely getting the dregs or leftovers of a store when these things come around.
I feel like with black friday and similar sale seasons i start to look at things i "need to buy because they're discounted" rather than something id really make use out of it
really comes down to self control and wether you want to wager the odds of waiting out of an item you really like going on clearance
I was gonna dump like $700 on a cdg jacket (so i decided to sleep on it for a week), saw it was sold out today. Im $700 richer and i dont have yet another jacket, so i can sleep soundly.
Good points in the above. If you know you aren't (too crazy of) an impulse shopper and have a good understanding of your style it can be a good time to pick up some pieces which would typically be outside your price range.
Make sure where ever you're shopping from has a good return policy (especially look out for "no returns on discounted items") and at worst you're out $10-30.
PutThisOn usually publishes a good list of sales by the way. Here was last year's list if you're interested: https://www.putthison.com/every-black-friday-sale-worth-seeing-6/
Put This On
Every Black Friday Sale Worth Seeing
Every year, we round up the best Black Friday sales for our readers. The system is pretty simple. From now...
It is a scam in the sense that it’s literally a made up “holiday” (all holidays are made up but it is particularly egregious) designed to trick you into buying stuff you wouldn’t otherwise purchase and probably don’t need through an invented sense of urgency.
But if you have something you’ve wanted for a long time, it may be cheaper on Black Friday than on any other day of the year.
Honestly wouldn't touch it at all for most things
It's a well-known scam that companies will jack prices up a few weeks before to inflate their sale percentages and sales usually don't cover the more popular pieces; clothing in particular is susceptible bc the good styles will (as expected) sell out at full price anyway
if you're looking for savings for clothes it's better to follow the seasonal turnover sales which run on a very different calendar
Spring/Summer collections have to be out by fall so they peak sales at late October
and Fall/Winter peaks at late January