If you’re excited about “Black Friday”, you certainly aren’t alone.
Soon after the Thanksgiving turkey has been devoured and the dishes are all washed up, people all across the country will make a beeline to their favorite store to take advantage of this year’s “Deal of a Lifetime”!
While it’s true that this annual “save big” shopping day can help stretch your Christmas shopping dollars, if you aren’t careful it can also end up costing you, in one of two ways:
1 – The “savings” touted in some ads aren’t really savings at all.
2 – Some items being sold at deep discounts aren’t all that great in terms of quality and/or features.
We’ll take a look at number # 1 first…
If you see an ad offering a “Black Friday” deal for 40% off, ask yourself 40% off of what?
Do they mean 40% off the “retail price” or 40% off the everyday “in-store” price?
It’s quite rare to find an item on any store shelf that’s being sold at the “retail price”.
The retail business is highly competitive and virtually all stores sell their products at prices much lower than “retail”.
If an item normally sells at 40% off retail (which is not at all uncommon), you won’t be saving a penny if the “Black Friday” price of that item is 40% off the retail price.
Luckily, this is very easy to check before Black Friday arrives. Simply take the ad to the store and compare the Black Friday price to the price the item is selling for right now!
If the two prices are very close to one another, that Black Friday “deal” is a ruse.
And now, let’s look at #2…
Many items featured in Black Friday deals are special purchases that the retailers order directly from the manufacturers in bulk just for their Black Friday sales.
Oftentimes those special-order products are manufactured using cheaper materials and components and under lower quality control standards than the ones used to manufacture products that are sold every day.
Another thing they skimp on in these special purchase items is the features they offer.
For example, if it’s a tech item it might not come with some of the features you’ll find in an everyday “off the shelf” item.
Luckily, it’s easy to check for these potential issues as well. Simply take the ad to the store before Black Friday arrives and look for that exact brand and model item on the store shelves.
If you don’t find it on the shelves check at Amazon, Best Buy and/or a couple of other large online retailers.
If they don’t have that exact item for sale before Black Friday arrives you can rest assured that the item was manufactured just for this one special sale.
If that’s the case, the quality of the item is likely to be lower than what you’d get in a similar item that’s sold every day.
I hope you don’t think I’m trying to discourage you from taking advantage of the savings you can reap by shopping on Black Friday, because I’m not.
I’m simply giving you a little heads-up information that can hopefully help you save money without falling for a shady pricing scheme or buying an inferior product.
Happy shopping, and best of luck to you as you seek out the best Black Friday deals!
To finish up, here’s a short video explaining what you should (and shouldn’t) buy on Black Friday. Check it out!
Note: As always, you can watch the video at full screen by clicking the “square” icon that will pop up in the lower-right corner of the video after it begins playing.