If you’ve seen a store’s Black Friday deals one year, you’ve seen them all.
A new analysis by BestBlackFriday.com finds that most stores are offering many of the exact same deals this year as they did last year, and some are offering the same products as last year at higher prices.
Of the 25 stores studies, 24 were offering the exact same products on sale for Black Friday this year. To add to the disappointment, the vast majority of those products were offered at the exact same price. Thirteen stores were offering at least one product that was on sale last year at a higher price this year, and 12 were offering one at a lower price.
The trend is not necessarily a bad thing for consumers, and smaller discounts may actually be a sign that retailers have more faith in consumer’s ability to spend during the holiday shopping rush this year. It’s also logistically convenient for retailers to repeat deals year after year, and it can make smart business sense.
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“Remember, stores are in it for the profit and they want to replicate successful sales whenever they can,” BestBlackFriday.com co-owner Eric Jones wrote in a blog post about the study. “This is especially true if the store ran a successful sale where inventory was low and they think they can make even more sales the next year by duplicating the deal and increasing the inventory.”
Still, it may take some of the excitement out of Black Friday shoppers who are after deals that they may never see again.
