I hope I didn’t break any rules!
Taken from Mastodon. https://newsie.social/@royaards/115626367958953472
FYI: If you have undeniable proof of a store raising the price and then “discounting” it to be the original price, that constitutes false advertisement and opens them up for a lawsuit.
Setting aside all the consumerism comments I’m sure my fellow Lemmy users will fill us in about - you don’t want any black Friday deals. I worked electronics retail for almost a decade and saw it.
Black Friday “deals” aren’t percentages off products you want. For the most part they are shittier models with a letter different from their normal model number. These special black Friday models are made with parts that failed qa or just all around are cheaper. The companies don’t just magically take 20% off, they plan for it.
That $100 dollar 48" flat screen? Yeah it’s worth $100. Hope it was worth giving up time in your holidays to buy, because there’s a decent chance you’ll be returning it when it breaks.
(Tip for those buying tvs. Super bowl is the best time of year to buy a TV. They’re the actual good models and it’s the best sales of the year. Stores are in the post holiday slump and eager to move them.)
As opposed to every other shopping day where the consumerism is more ethical?
tbf I haven’t found a deal that I would punch a person for In many years
Unless I get to choose the person, I don’t think such a deal exists for me
I’m just the opposite, since the first time I realized that companies mark up prices on things at the end of the year just so they can “discount” them for black Friday deals has made me want to punch a lot of people.
The fact that it has gotten so bad that just about everything costs more from Nov-Jan makes me want to stab some people.Camelcamelcamel and keepa are both awesome, but Amazon has caught on to them and will now pull listings to leave only the higher priced listing available. Since those listings have some history and have not changed in price, it will show up as not fluctuating.
Don’t forget that Black Friday only SKUs are a thing. They take an existing product and make one that is cosmetically the same but make the insides worse. They then pass that off as the original and mark it as on sale.
I was able to get an 8-string headless guitar at close to half the price. Then recouped a little more by selling my current guitar. So all in all I “spent” 1/3 of the original price. One of best bang-for-buck deals I’ve gotten in a while.
Yeah the stampedes and shootouts are all over.
The sales are getting earlier and earlier each year. I think the Amazon Black Friday sale started on the 20th. I find it to be a bit of a capitalistic ouroboros. Due to wanting to get an edge on competitors, the sales have started to shift up to the days before Black Friday. Next year, more companies will do this to complete and everyone will be done shopping before thanksgiving.
I am ok with the capitalistic version of Black Friday eating itself.
Break
Break*
*bork
Just fixed it! Sorry for the typo.








