That ‘limited time offer’ for Black Friday might just not be as limited as you think. One user posted a story to an online Canadian shopping forum where she was looking to do a price adjustment on Black Friday. To her surprise, her item was now scanning in at a higher price. These are just one of the many tricks that retailers use in order to ensure their shoppers spend more money during busy sale seasons.
Half of the struggle is getting shoppers in retailers’ stores. Shopper Andrea said that she fell for the false advertising when an Apple employee advised her to wait and come back on Black Friday to get her iPhone. While she walked away with an iPhone on her Black Friday shopping trip, she left without any savings.
Another tactic that retailers use are bounce-back coupons. For example, shopper Alissa had received a $50 promo gift card to Sportchek after making an eligible purchase. The catch? The discount is excluded from some of the store’s biggest brands.
While there are a lot of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals that truly come once a year—for many stores, it’s just a sales tactic. A good tip for shoppers is to make sure you’re tracking the price before these events and to make sure you compare prices on more than one site to make sure you’re getting the best deal.
Another tip to keep in mind is that if you don’t need it, don’t buy it.
