Black Friday. You can part ways – there will be no promotion. Black Friday is “black sham” in Poland

Black Friday is a shopping tradition that came to Poland from the United States. In this country, since the 1950s, the Friday following Thanksgiving Day has been widely regarded as a “shopping holiday”. Many Americans take a day off on this day, and stores organize numerous promotions and lower prices by 50, 60 and even 80 percent.

While Polish stores have also fallen in love with Black Friday in recent years, they still don’t play us by the same rules as their American counterparts. To say that Black Friday promotions in Poland are symbolic is basically saying nothing.

Black Friday in Polish, i.e. virtual promotions

The fact that Black Friday in Poland is rather a “black sham”, confirmed by hard data. Deloitte has been exposing the marketing tricks of Polish stores for years.

And so, in 2021, price reductions in the 800 online stores analyzed by Deloitte reached an average of only 3.6 percent.and until 57 percent of stores has not prepared any offers for customers.

In very few cases, reductions were greater than 5 percent

– explains Anita Bielańska from Deloitte.

A year ago, 48 percent were discounted. products, which shows how little has changed in this area. For one-third of the products, we recorded price increases, and 20% for has been left unchanged. The maximum price drop that we were able to identify was 36 percent, while marketing messages spoke of as much as 70 percent. reductions

– says Jakub Kot, president of Dealavo, which co-authored the report.

At the same time average the increase in prices amounted to 3.1 percent, so we can say that on Black Friday the value of the analyzed basket of products did not change (!) To put it crudely: Black Friday in our country is often still a “hoax day”, not a “promotion day”.

It was the same in previous years. In 2020, the scale of reductions averaged 3.35 percent, in 2019 – 4 percentand in 2018 – 3.5 percent.

Black Friday interest Picodi.com

The customers themselves seem to notice that the stores play unfairly with them. The data shows that interest in Black Friday is gradually decreasing from year to year. shows that Black Friday was the most popular in 2018 – then it was only worse. In 2020, the number of Black Friday-related queries on Google was as much as 37 percent. lower than the year before.

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The Picodi.com online survey shows that in 2021, the willingness to participate in Black Friday was declared only by 31 percent Poles, while in 2020 it was 40 percent. Slightly different data is presented by , which shows that the number of people intending to take advantage of special offers on the last Friday of November fell from 63 to 56 percent this year – however, the trend is clear.

Black Friday in Polish, i.e. inflating the prices of products

Therefore, promotions on Black Friday (or Black Week – because the sale festival has already stretched for the whole week) should be approached with distance and a large dose of distrust. Especially since stores use various tricks to convince us that promotion is something that is not.

A common practice that is an open secret in the industry is to increase product prices a few days before Black Friday, followed by a supposed “promotion”. For example, on Tuesday we raise the price of a TV set from PLN 2,999 to PLN 3,999, and on Friday we lower it to PLN 3,499 and place a flashy banner on the product: “GREAT PROMOTION – PLN 500”.

The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection warns against fake promotions on Black Friday.

Raising prices a few days before the planned sale is creating the right background to simulate tempting discounts. It is a dishonest marketing ploy to convince the consumer that the promotion is more attractive than it really is

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Such practices will soon be stopped. Poland is currently working on the implementation of the EU Omnibus Directivewhich will include enforce precise provision of information on changes in the prices of goods or services and their lowest price, which was in force during the period of 30 days before the introduction of the reduction.

Black Friday in Polish, or how not to fall into the trap of sellers

For now, our greatest ally in the fight against unfair promotions remains common sense and a bit of cunning. Beware of impulse purchases during Black Friday. If you’ve been looking for a new smartphone or TV for some time and you’ve picked out a few models, it’s worth holding off on shopping until Black Friday. It may turn out that there will actually be some interesting promotion. On the other hand, buying something you don’t need just because it’s (allegedly) a little cheaper defeats the purpose.

Before deciding to buy, it is worth checking whether the product is actually on sale. This is where price comparison websites come in handy (ceneo.pl, skapiec.pl or nokaut.pl), which give us insight into how the price of a given product has developed over the last few months. Using comparison websites, it is easier to spot price manipulations of stores.

At the same time, it is worth remembering that shopping on Black Friday does not mean that – as customers – we lose any consumer rights related to the complaint or the return of goods, although the sellers themselves often try to convince us, referring to non-existent regulations.

Regardless of whether you buy goods at a promotional or regular price, from a Polish seller or abroad, uniform consumer regulations apply throughout the European Union

– reminds the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

If you buy in an online store, it is worth remembering that:

• you have the right to make a complaint on the same terms as for stationary purchases;
• Goods purchased online can be returned without giving a reason within 14 days of receipt. You just need to complete and send back the declaration of withdrawal from the contract;
• the returned goods should not bear traces of use – you can check them in the same way as in a stationary store;
• checking the parcel with the courier is not obligatory;
• not all goods are returnable. Restrictions apply to products such as tickets, music and video CDs, games or goods with a short shelf life;
• the costs of returning the goods are borne by the consumer, unless the entrepreneur has not informed him or agreed to bear them himself.