Black Friday isn’t just a single day anymore; it’s a full week-long shopping extravaganza. Retailers go all out with discounts, ads, and gimmicks to get you into the store or clicking that “buy now” button. Are the deals offered from sites like Amazon during Thanksgiving week really that great, though? One Redditor has some serious doubts after what he found on Amazon.
‘Feels Like a Classic Fake Discount’
Reddit user u/incognitooo_mode, posting on a board about air fryers, explained what happened when he was looking at air fryers on Amazon during Black Friday week.
“So I was checking this Cosori 9-in-1 air fryer for the last couple of months in Amazon, and noticed something wild,” they said. “The so called discount price is same as the price from September through October $89. Then right before Black Friday, they bumped it up to $119, and now for the “Black Friday Sale” they dropped it to $89 and slapped a 26% off tag and ‘Black Friday Deal’ tag on it like it’s some huge deal.
“It literally went from $88–$90 in past two months → to $119 in the beginning of Nov → back down to $88–$89 during sale. Feels like a classic fake discount just to make the discount look bigger.”
How to Track an Item’s Price History
Along with the post, the Redditor included a screenshot that explained how they knew the price history: a price tracker you can download for your web browser.
The tracker u/incognitooo_mode used is called Buyhatke, and they posted a screenshot of what it looks like when you check prices with it. Sure enough, the data backs up their claims that Amazon raised the price of the air fryer not long before Black Friday week.
If you want to get a price tracker as well, there are a number to choose from. Camelcamelcamel is one of the best for tracking prices on Amazon specifically, and it has extensions for many different browsers. Honey can track prices (and find coupons) for thousands of different retailers, and Keepa displays price tracking charts for Amazon and eBay right in the browser window. There are loads more options than just these, so you’re bound to find one that works best for what you need.
Are ‘Fake’ Sales Common?
The reactions to u/incognitooo_mode’s post on Reddit were less than surprised. “They do this with like pretty much everything every year,” responded one Redditor. “This has been a well-known thing on the internet for a while now.”
“Oh honey, they do that all the time, it’s not new,” said another. “Black Friday may have been a good time for purchases years ago but it’s an illusion now.”
Data actually back those anecdotes.“Our researchers spent six months tracking prices at 25 major retailers and found pretty much all the markdowns that are offered by most stores, aren’t special prices or savings at all,” said Kevin Brasler, executive editor of Washington Consumers’ Checkbook, in a report titled Sales Prices Are Usually Fake Discounts.
Retailers often show a list price or regular price, which is then crossed out, making you feel like you’re getting a much better deal than you are. Retailers rarely charge that list price, Brasler said, making the practice very deceptive.
One place retailers don’t do this? The European Union. There are laws requiring retailers to display an item’s price history. “In EU we just have the lowest price within 30 days shown,” explained one Redditor. Wouldn’t that be amazing?
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