Black Friday: a day of deals that broke the internet

How did you get on? I got a watch I'd fancied for ages and a TV I didn't think I could afford.
If you're wondering what the blimmin' heck I'm on about, then you might just have missed some brilliant bargains.
I'm talking about Black Friday, which has gone from a weird thing Americans do to one of the most important bits of the tech fan's calendar.
Black Friday is the day after the US Thanksgiving holiday, and it's when retailers start slashing prices to kick-start the festive shopping season.
It's famous for the so-called "doorbuster" deals, amazing and amazingly limited special offers that just happen to cause outbreaks of fisticuffs in front of news cameras, which in turn make the viewing public think that that particular retailer must be bargain central. Funny how that happens, eh?
There's a second day, Cyber Monday. That's the Monday following Black Friday, and it's supposedly the day when everybody goes "aaaagh! It's December! Must buy presents!"
Many retailers offer Cyber Monday deals now, although they tend to be more modest than Black Friday ones and fewer people get into fights. Next up? Boxing Day sales!

How Black Friday hit big in the UK

In a few short years the British have gone from mocking Black Friday to getting rather excited about it.
Barclaycard reports that this year's Black Friday was the highest spending day on record, with online sales up 37.5% compared to last year.
John Lewis reported that sales were up 56.8% week on week and 21.8% year on year, with the firm shifting an impressive £179.1 million in a single week.
WorldPay says the number of transactions was up 124% while Visa Europe reported spending rising by 1.6%. The New West End Company, which represents businesses on London's Oxford Street, Regent Street and New Bond Street, expected £220 million to be spent in those three streets alone in one day.
The overall picture is the happiest the high street, virtually and in the real world, has been for some time.
And the online numbers are particularly impressive when you consider that the moment Black Friday began, many retailers' websites fell over like a Victorian gentlewoman confronted by a flasher.
Some sites' "we're too busy! Queue now!" pages looked a little suspicious - so for example disabling JavaScript on the Currys website bypassed the traffic wardens and took you to a very smooth and quick-running website, which was very interesting.
But stores like Game were genuinely offline as angry execs no doubt threatened to take the web teams' Nerf guns and amusing desk ornaments if they didn't get the site back online, stat.
In the US, HP and Best Buy went down; in the UK people found themselves unable to access Argos, Tesco and Boots.
If only there was some way of predicting when demand was likely to be quite high, such as LOOKING AT YOUR OWN SODDING ADVERTS. Ahem.

Were there really Black Friday bargains?

Yes, there were. Our teams of highly trained bargain finders tracked some really good deals on laptops and routers, TVs and Hi-Fis, Chromecasts and consoles and Kindle Paperwhites and Apple iPads.
Some deals were too good to be true - a quick price check of some (but not all) of Amazon's lightning deals showed that some rivals' un-discounted prices were awfully close to Amazon's discounted ones - but others, such as 60% off fine technology magazines, were genuinely good.
And as we may have already mentioned, your correspondent got a big telly.

What's in it for retailers?

They get to shift old stock to make room for new things, and many of us buy more than just the bargain - so for example you might buy a flat-screen TV, remember that every single one of them sounds like it's been thrown down a well, and shell out for a soundbar too; or you might buy a set of Beats headphones and a funny little hat to put on top of them.
Cross-selling isn't the only way retailers make money: in some cases, what the shops lose by slashing their profit margins is more than compensated for by selling the items in large volumes.

What's in it for me?

Cheap things! UK retailers aren't quite as mad as the US ones - even the biggest doorbusters were fairly modest deals on things such as Polaroid TVs when US shoppers were getting 300% off Mac Pros and helicopters and guns and stuff.
But discounts are discounts, and if you got a good deal and you also used a cashback debit or credit card and signed up for a cashback website and applied a voucher code the retailer probably owes you money now, or at least a hug.

What should I do for Black Friday next year?

Homework. We'd recommend bookmarking a smart, sassy, thoroughly independent tech website - hello! - and finding a great source of deals worth looking at - hello again! - so that you don't waste time on pointless offers.
This page right here will be the place to come for all the best bargains on all the best products.
And we'd suggest a shopping list, not of specific model numbers (the likelihood of the GargleBargle BHS21212/EGH3/B2-E42 just happening to come with a 70% discount is pretty slim) but of brands and broad product categories.
If you know the going rate for a 50-inch Samsung LED TV, you'll know whether £100 off the one you're looking at is a good deal or just the going rate; similarly if you know that the iPad you're looking at is the latest one, you'll know that even £30 off is pretty good going.

When is Black Friday?

In 2015, Black Friday falls on Friday 27 November. That gives you plenty of time to start saving, or to learn martial arts if you fancy your chances down the local ASDA at midnight

From: techradar.com

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