“if you are looking for a bargain this
Christmas then you’re probably getting
yourself ready to find a steal in
tomorrow’s Black Friday deals but maybe
we should be thinking twice before
partying with our cash as research
suggest that up to 98 of deals were not
worth buying in last year’s sales at the
consumer Group which compared tens of
thousands of prices and found that
almost all of the deals were cheaper all
the same price at other times of the
year not only that but you might not be
getting the best quality too a trading
standards have removed hundreds of
potentially counterfeit products from
Instagram ahead of the Black Friday sale
so is the famous big pre-Christmas scale
a Sam a scam I’m delighted to be joined
Now by Harry Wallop consumer journalist
Harry I haven’t seen you for ages it’s
lovely to see you I was so pleased to
know you were going to be talking to us
about this topic right Black Friday or
is it going to be all it’s cracked up to
be
I would love to see you too Bev um well
I think you know which got a lot of very
big uh headlines for that uh that sort
of scary stat that 98 of deals just
weren’t worth it on Black Friday if you
dig in a little the key thing was that
prices were either cheaper at another
time in the year or they were the same
price so what you do have in some
circumstances is that things do get cut
in price at Black Friday but they then
just stay that price all the way up till
Christmas and under that category which
would say it was a bad deal and I think
that’s a little unfair that the more the
more uh truthful statistic is that 46
were cheaper so not the same price were
cheaper than at some other point of the
year but Black Friday is like any sale
that we used to have it’s like the
January sales there are some good deals
there are some rubbish deals you just
need to do your homework
um Harry do you know if there are any
particular types of products that might
be dipping at the moment and then might
go up again in the run-up to Christmas
I’m thinking Tech or anything like that
toys
yeah absolutely so there’s um one of the
best things you should do if you’re
doing your research is go onto one of
those price comparison sites and they’re
excellent ones now that don’t just do
the utilities and insurance and boring
things they do products and any product
they do clothes and they do air fryers
and they do fridges uh and there’s price
spy and idealo and and all sorts one
called price Runner has gone through the
data and they have worked out uh what is
cheaper now than a couple of months ago
and what’s more expensive so Excuse me
while I look at my notes uh so
turntables uh vinyl turntables very
popular with the teens uh they are 27
cheaper than a couple of months ago
remote control toys have been cut by 32
power tools not a very sexy Christmas
present but hey maybe uh that’s down 27
but some things have gone up so games
consoles are more expensive uh 17 more
expensive than just two months ago
toiletries and jewelry are both up
compared with a couple of months ago is
that right now you’re you’re a dad I
know that what what
Christmas with your with your consumer
expert head on do you set yourself a
budget for your Christmas presents or
and then stick to it or how do you do it
I I’ve been known to kind of buy things
in October completely forget about them
and find them in March because I’m that
disorganized well I found something
actually only last week in the present
cupboard we have a present cupboard I
bought in America on a work trip for a
nephew uh from the land of Fisher Price
I was at Fisher-Price headquarters I was
so excited to discover it uh that I’d
already got the Christmas present so it
happens to the best of us look you know
each family does it differently we have
tried to set price limits in the past
you know let’s only buy presents worth
20 pounds each and then there’s no
arguments but then people cheat you know
and they get around it with sort of
clever methods I mean I think
that I mean personally the thing I I
insist that everyone does is make a
Christmas list of things you need
because I might as well get you
something that you want the kind of
tokenistic thing that basically just
ends up in Oxfam seems a pointless waste
of money and and resources for everyone
involved and the other thing I’m really
going big on this year is refurbished
you know there’s so much technology that
it has an element of inbuilt
obsolescence the expectation that every
year you should get a new smartphone
it’s crazy there’s just no need you know
the the Apple iPhone or the Samsung
Galaxy that came out two years ago is
really good it’s full of fantastic get
it refurbished you can save 200 quid by
going to a very reputable retailer and
they will refurbish it and it’s
basically as good as new yeah and I did
that recently with my daughter’s new
phone she had no idea she thought it was
a new one I just got a refurbished one
and it was in a relatively new looking
box and you know she didn’t need
anything better than that frankly
um Harry Wallop thank you so much it’s
lovely you I’m not going to say happy
Christmas because it’s way too early but
thank you for your advice on that and no
doubt we will talk to you uh in the
run-up to Christmas about what else is
on offer thank you so much Harry Walker
consumer journalist
“