Those Black Friday deals aren’t as good as you think, investigation shows

Tom Bedford November 20, 2018

When you think of Black Friday you think of a golden field of deals – or a store of angry shoppers… but an investigation carried out by Which? indicates this idea of a deals bonanza isn’t necessarily correct.

Those Black Friday deals aren’t as good as you think, investigation shows

Charting the costs of certain products over the six-month period before and after Black Friday 2017, Which?’s investigation found that 87% of items were the same price, or even cheaper, at other times of year than they were on Black Friday. In total, Black Friday discounts gave only 13% of products their cheapest price over the year-long investigation.

Nearly half of the surveyed products were cheaper in the six months after Black Friday, which of course contain Christmas and Boxing Day sales as well. A surprising 28% of products were cheaper before and after Black Friday, so you’d likely pay more to buy them on Black Friday than compared to other times of the year.

In total, 94 products were monitored, split between Amazon, Argos, Currys PC World and John Lewis. A disproportionate amount came from Currys PC World, at 63%, while only 3% came from Argos. The rest were roughly split between the other two retailers. Interestingly, the same products weren’t surveyed between the retailers to get a better sense of the actual changes in the prices.

It’s worth noting that Black Friday sales span thousands of products, and plenty of retailers, so the 94 products tracked may not provide a substantial representation of Black Friday sales. In addition, the actual breakdown of products — TVs, smartphones, watches etc. — wasn’t detailed.

However, that doesn’t mean all Black Friday deals are great, and it’s worth being careful in Black Friday sales to ensure you’re not getting conned. We have a few tips to help you make the most of Black Friday’s deals, and there are many sites such as Camelcamelcamel that help you track a product’s true sale price over time.

With so many sales over Black Friday, there are certainly some great offers available, so why not check out our pages on the best Black Friday deals for smartphones, laptops or products on Amazon to find some of the best.