Source: Radio New Zealand
Consumer NZ is warning shoppers that some Black Friday sale deals may not be as good as they seem. RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Consumer NZ is urging shoppers to approach the flood of Black Friday discounts with a healthy dose of scepticism, warning that some “bargains” may not be as good as they seem.
Black Friday is on Friday 28 November, but advertising for the American tradition of thanksgiving sales is already ramping up.
Consumer communications and campaigns adviser Abby Damen said potentially advertising comes months ahead of the actual event.
“Then it merges into Cyber Monday and then you’ve got Christmas promotions and then Boxing Day, so it is really huge and I think what we see is that a lot of it is hype.”
People would be buying things because Christmas is coming up, she said.
Consumer NZ wants to ensure that when people buy something that they think is a bargain that is actually is, she said.
It was increasingly difficult to tell whether a sale price item was in fact at a lower price than it had been over the previous few months, she said.
“We’ve done price tracking over the last few years and see a similar trend each time. So this year we noticed a lot of the language around specials could make you think that it is on sale but it’s not necessarily the cheapest that it’s been all year.”
People could check on independent websites such as Consumer NZ, PriceSpy or PriceMe to look at the price of a product over time “and see if today’s special is actually a bargain”, she said.
Storewide sales could also be a problem, she said.
“If you’ve got 20 to 50 percent off everything and most things are discounted at 20 percent, you know it’s not really fair if you’re lured into a store or an online space where that’s not necessarily the case,” she said.
But people are always going to make the most of discounts, she said.
“So we’d say avoid the hype, that’s like look out for those count down timers that might pop up on the website, any pressure tactic that you can feel is trying to encourage you to buy right now, you know you were looking at that product, you’re going to buy it anyway, you don’t need to be pressured.
“So be really conscious of all those designs you see online that might put pressure on you.”
People could also check who they were dealing with by looking at the company’s register, she said.
“Just because a company’s got a .co.nz in the URL it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a New Zealand business. You need to do your due diligence.”
You will also be better protected if you pay for the item using a credit or debit card “because if the worst case scenario happens you can contact your bank and request a charge-back”, she said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
