The week of Thanksgiving is typically a time for families to gather together and give thanks while also consuming large amounts of food. For retailers, this is a time to promote products with sale gimmicks that seem too good to be true. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are marketed as being great days to purchase desired items at a cheaper price. Companies take advantage of these well-known and anticipated shopping days to make decent profits. Although the week leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday presented deals that seemed too good to pass up; some shoppers questioned the deals and revealed the truth behind the price tags.
Many customers are worried about the legitimacy of the prices. Alejandro Rodriguez (24), “I don’t think that the deals are that real. Businesses take the opportunity to make fake sales forcing customers to buy more. The businesses are trying to take advantage of the spending.”
One speculation that some shoppers have with Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals is that companies intentionally raise the price of sale items before Black Friday, and then market the items at a lower price which is the original cost of the items. Companies do this to make the reference price look very expensive and make customers believe they are getting a very good discount on these products. Another ripoff to look for is anchor prices. This is when companies will lie about the discounted prices and you will pay the retailed price.
Gunnar Duncan (24) said, “I believe that the prices listed during Black Friday are true. I shop at Scheels and Dicks a lot and I noticed that deals were much better during Black Friday.”
Online shopping has grown in popularity due to its convenience for consumers. However, the risks of scams have also increased with the rise in online shopping. Pop-up websites take advantage of consumer interest and promote good-to-be-true prices to catch the attention of buyers. The pop-up website will vanish in a few days and with that will take all the money from the interested buyers of their website. The problem with these sites is that it is often very difficult to know if they are real or not, so it is important to stick to sites that are truthful and well-known that people use. Scams are always a problem but seem to be even more abundant during sales and holiday shopping.
Holiday shopping is in full swing, and retailers are taking advantage of the season and shoppers. EHS shoppers like to share the deals they are finding with their peers; However, they need to make sure they are purchasing items with a “buyer beware” mindset. Sometimes those “too-good-to-be-true” deals are legitimately too-good-to-be-true.
Although it is important to be cautious about shopping, it is also important to take advantage of legitimate sales. This is a great time to buy from your favorite brands for cheap. It’s also a great time to get holiday gift shopping done for a discounted price.
