Why it pays to think twice about spending on Black Friday

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Black Friday is almost here! Are you ready to sit perched, like an angry bin chicken, in a state of constant anxiety in a fruitless quest to secure the best deals on products you quite possibly don’t need? I know I am!


Much like Halloween, a once American tradition has arrived on our shores, threatening to brainwash the Australian populace into thinking we all somehow need to take part and – above all – spend lots of money.

But what if, and hear us out here, you simply didn’t buy stuff on Black Friday?

In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, when rents and interest rates are spiralling, and major supermarkets are bleeding us dry, Black Friday hits us like a tidal wave of cognitive dissonance: When everything’s so expensive, can we actually afford to not save money by spending when everything’s on sale?

We reckon there’s a few things to think about before you pull out the credit card. First and foremost, despite the apocalyptic language, Black Friday deals are rarely “the lowest price ever” or “once in a lifetime”.

A report by our UK sister site Which? found that 98% of products on sale during Black Friday 2021 were actually cheaper or the same price at other times during that year. So relax – if you miss out during Black Friday, you’ll almost certainly get a second shot at a similar price down the line. Sites like CamelCamelCamel and ShopSavvy track prices across their history and are extremely useful.

We recommend doing some research to create a Black Friday shopping list of essentials. Instead of wading in looking for “bargains” it pays to build a list of items you actually need and use Black Friday strategically to save money on products you were planning to buy anyway.

Which brings us to our next point: If you don’t want to get sucked into the Black Friday vortex, simply don’t check the sales. As human beings we tend to dramatically overestimate the strength of our willpower when it comes to fighting back against the endless vortex.

It’s understandable. Retailers and websites fighting tooth and nail for low margin sales volume and affiliate revenue are well-versed in the weaknesses of the human psyche. It’s their full-time job to figure out the myriad methods required to separate you from your hard-earned dollars. You may think you’re immune to marketing speak, but you’re probably not.

So, in short, if you don’t want to spend money, stay away. (And maybe avoid looking at your inbox for a while!)

Then, of course, there are the ethical issues of shopping during Black Friday. In Europe alone, an estimated 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 was launched into our atmosphere during last year’s event and it’s also worth noting that Amazon warehouse workers in the UK and 40 other countries chose the Black Friday weekend to strike for better wages and conditions in a campaign called “Make Amazon Pay”.

Ultimately, if you’re looking for ethical reasons to not shop during Black Friday, you don’t have to look far.

But if you’re an individual, fighting against the fear of missing out, breathe easy. Unless you have a shopping list of items you need to purchase in the next few months, you don’t have to shop on Black Friday. Don’t let FOMO peer pressure you into spending money for no good reason.

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I don’t need to hear you out. Keeping your card in your wallet saves much more money than getting the best bargain price.

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The whole ‘black friday’ thing annoys me intensely. Black friday was the name apllied to any friday the 13th with no sales at all. One just needed to be careful not to upset malignant spirits. :grin:
Why we must slavishly ape all things American is beyond my comprehension.

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Why, indeed.

Have you ever wondered where the “Black Friday” name and sales tradition came from?

According to Encyclopedia Brittanica,

… the term dates back to the early 1960s, when police officers in Philadelphia began using the phrase “Black Friday” to describe the chaos that resulted when large numbers of suburban tourists came into the city to begin their holiday shopping and, in some years, attend Saturday’s annual Army-Navy football game. The huge crowds created a headache for the police, who worked longer shifts than usual as they dealt with traffic jams, accidents, shoplifting, and other issues.

… so it originally was a ‘black’ Friday in the Friday 13th sense, ie a day when bad things will happen.

Now it’s a day for businesses to get themselves into the ‘black’ (as opposed to red) by waving the ‘sales’ flag and invoking a buying frenzy. :confused:

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I’ve happened across three items apparently on sale during black Friday that I’d already purchased in the last 6-9 months. One was the same ‘fairly good’ special price that I’d taken advantage of earlier in the year, the other two didn’t match the specials I’d taken advantage of.

The saddest part is the rhetoric - as puerile as it sounds, it must work. I try not to think about that too much. It seems to be one of the purest examples of woftam.

The fun part this year has been crafting an email filter to catch the slurry of email as it arrives and diverting it to an appropriate folder for quick review and disposal …

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Agree, it is a industry marketing program to ‘encourage’ consumers to spend more.

There is also mounting evidence that bombarding consumers with frequent advertising about a ‘big sale event’ makes some consumers buy even though they don’t need to. Possibly playing on the FOMO or worrying consumers that they might need to pay more if they happen to need the purchase in the future.

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And the downside of Black Friday to be wary of:

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I looked at your laptop recommendations and went to look at the recommended Lenovo Yoga Pro 9 16IRP8 laptop. The price on Choice (and yes, prices change, I know) was $2339.00
I went to Lenovo and they have it for $2549.00. Okay, price increases, however, then looking at the full details, that’s the price AFTER the BlackFriday coupon is applied and the apparent ‘base price’ is, wait for it: $4229.00. So I think there’s some dodgy marketing there.

I’m in the market for a new laptop, and thought I might get something in the sales, but I’ll be waiting a bit longer I think.

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Brands typically produce more than one version of a laptop. The model number used for marketing does not change. It would have been helpful if Choice provided the full detailed model number from the physically reviewed laptop. The big retailers such as Hervey Norman, JB etc may even have a version of a model that only they sell. Caution advised.

There are significant technical differences between the two products. The sale version has numerous higher spec components. I’ve listed just a few. It pays to take your time and compare every detail from the specifications.

Note the review laptop tech spec included
Intel Core i7-13705H
16GB of Ram
SSD size not listed
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU

The Lenovo on sale is a higher spec version
Intel® Core™ i9-13905H Processor
32GB of Ram
1TB SSD
NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4060 Laptop GPU 8GB GDDR6

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Thanks for that.

Clearly I didn’t pick up on the Intel Core difference.

I was looking for other specs that suit me.

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I have a 10 year old washing machine that is on its way out so I was interested in the Black Friday savings. The Bosch brand front loader was recommended by Choice so I did my research. I managed to get the recommended model from Appliances Online. The price was similar to other store offers so the 30% off may or may not have been genuine because I do not know what the previous pricing was. Still happy with the free delivery, install and removal of my current machine and pricing $1,043.
Choice listed it at $1,299 and Bosch rrp is $1,499 other stores also had delivery costs (TGG were $55.00) and no offer to remove current machine.

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I automatically unsubscribe from any Australian company that mentions Black Friday, Cyber Monday etc. It simply reveals how lazy their marketers are and their contempt for our culture. And don’t get me started on companies that are using “Black November”.

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If I wasn’t going to buy it, if I haven’t already been looking for it then I wouldn’t consider it. By happenchance (aka likely targeted marketing) I spotted Smart watches I’d been looking at a few months ago & decided to wait as the cost was OTT. Black Friday nearly 40% off - so I nabbed it as at that price I considered the buy acceptable.

Same sort of thing. We were out looking for something specific - the franchise was having 20% off BFS - so we decided to “also” get an additional item I’d been wanting for a considerable time but normally wouldn’t justify - at 20% off it was in the range of “yeh, OK, I’ll get it!”

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Strategic shopping…:wink:

Looks like two businesses just gained sales they might have otherwise not made. It may be astute buying.

Do our responses to these sales for carefully considered purchases reinforce to retailers the profit values of perpetuating the US styled “Black Friday” sales? Even though the use of Black Friday has zero, nil, diddly squat etc to do with Australian tradition, or our long established label for Friday 13th.

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I too dislike the name. I would prefer Cyber Long Weekend. After all, Australia is the land of the long weekend.

The reality is that it comes along at a good time to make a dent in the Xmas shopping, if you are organised enough to know already what you are seeking to buy and what is the normal market price.

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Not to mention retailers that advertised a black Friday deal only to be out of stock on day one of the sale…

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When at Kmart yesterday, we noticed a number of product boxes on display around the store market marked as ‘Black Friday’. The marking were printed onto the cardboard containing products.

Looks like Kmart had ‘special’ products ordered for their Black Friday sales. It looks like it was like Boxing Day sales when products are specifically ordered and sold on the day. These products aren’t those usually found on the shelves so it is harder to determine if one is really getting a bargain.

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To me the words “Black Friday” remind me of a particularly horrendous bush fire. I am not in the mood To go shopping
Greg

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