Are You Really Saving Money Shopping on Black Friday?

Retail

Published: November 26, 2015 8:51 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 4:44 pm

In a survey of consumers completed in mid-October by website BestBlackFriday.com, nearly two-thirds of consumers said that they do not believe they will get the best holiday season deals by shopping the Black Friday sales. That won’t keep them from shopping, however, simply because there are so many promotional pricing offers that there’s bound to be something they want to buy.

That raises the question, then, of how good are Black Friday deals? The researchers at WalletHub conducted additional research to answer that question. Overall, the researchers found that 31% of Black Friday items offer no savings at all. Here are the key takeaways from the research:

68% of items will have a significant Black Friday discount (10%+), making it worthwhile to purchase these items during the special events
14% of items will have Black Friday prices essentially unchanged from everyday prices
17% of items will be more expensive on Black Friday than they currently are on Amazon.com
The ‘Books, Movies & Music’ category will be the most-discounted on Black Friday, providing savings of 28% relative to current prices, whereas ‘Jewelry’ will only be about 4% cheaper on Black Friday.

A few examples:

A KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer that normally sells for $280 at J.C. Penney is marked to sell for $350 on Black Friday
A Razor McGrath Dirt Rocket Electric Motocross Bike usually selling for $299 at Amazon.com is marked to sell for $420
A Nikon camera bundle normally sells for $447 at BJ’s and is marked to sell for $500 on Black Friday.

WalletHub turned up some huge bargains as well:

A Real Pro ULTRA™ 3D Massage Chair that normally sells for $5,177 from Panasonic is available for $3,000
A Dyson DC39 vacuum cleaner normally priced at $394 sells for $250 at Macy’s
A NordicTrack Elite 7700 treadmill normally selling for $2,500 is marked to sell for $1,800

Here’s the full report from WalletHub.

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