Black Friday and the other big sales: are the deals real?

Big sales are real events with real price cuts, but a sale label doesn’t tell you whether today is a good day to buy. Years of price tracking point the same way: most things marked down on Black Friday can be had for the same price, or less, at some other point in the year. That doesn’t make the sales useless. It means they reward people who arrive knowing what they want and what it normally costs.

The dates this season

• Singles’ Day: 11 November. Started in China and now promoted by many international shops and marketplaces.
• Black Friday: Friday 27 November 2026, the day after Thanksgiving in the US. Many shops now run offers for a week or more around it.
• Cyber Monday: 30 November 2026.
• Boxing Day: 26 December, the start of the post-Christmas sales in the UK, Canada and Australia.
• January sales: through most of January, mainly for clearing winter and Christmas stock.

Australia has another big season in June, when shops run end-of-financial-year sales before the tax year closes on 30 June.

What price tracking has found

The UK consumer group Which? has tracked Black Friday prices for several years. In research published in November 2025, it followed 175 products at eight large UK retailers for the year around the 2024 sales. 83% of them were the same price or cheaper at least once outside the four-week Black Friday period, and none was at its cheapest only on Black Friday itself. It also found 14 offers where the higher “was” price hadn’t been charged at that retailer once in the previous 12 months.

Earlier rounds found much the same, with around nine in ten tracked deals available at the same price or less at other times. The figures are for UK shops, but nothing about the pattern is specific to the UK.

Regulators watch the season too. In November 2025, Canada’s Competition Bureau publicly reminded businesses that Black Friday savings have to be real, and that inflating regular prices to exaggerate a saving can break the law.

The EU rule that helps you most

In the EU, a shop announcing a reduction must show, as the earlier price, the lowest price it charged in the 30 days before. That makes a price rise in early November show up as a smaller or zero discount on Black Friday. It’s one of the strongest protections anywhere against inflated “was” prices. Our guide to telling whether a sale price is real covers the rules in other countries.

How to use a sale without overpaying

• Write the list before the sale. Decide what you need and the model you want. Sales are built to sell you the thing on the front page.
• Note today’s prices. A screenshot of the price at two or three shops now gives you something to measure against when the banners go up.
• Check the model number. Some sale items are cheaper versions made for the sales, with a name close to a better model. Compare the full model number, not the product name.
• Compare totals across shops. The shop with the loudest sale isn’t always the cheapest once delivery is added. See finding the cheapest shop.
• Look up price promises. Some retailers promise to refund the difference if the price drops again within a set period. They vary a lot, so read the conditions.
• Check the returns window. Many shops extend returns for Christmas purchases. That’s voluntary and on top of your legal rights, and the dates differ from shop to shop.

Watch out for sale-time scams

Fake shops and fake delivery texts peak around the big sales. Be wary of a site you’ve never heard of with prices far below everyone else’s, especially if it only takes bank transfers. Pay with a method that lets you get your money back if the goods never arrive. Our guide to paying safely online compares them.

When waiting makes sense

If you need something now, buy it now at a fair price; the saving from waiting a few weeks is often small. If you can wait and the product is popular, it will usually be discounted more than once a year, and the lowest price is as likely to show up in a quieter month as during the noisiest week of the year.

Sources

1. Which?: Most Black Friday deals the same price or cheaper at other times of the year (November 2025)
2. Which?: Nine in 10 Black Friday ‘deals’ cheaper or same price at other times of the year
3. Which?: How to check if a Black Friday deal is real
4. Competition Bureau Canada: Make sure your Black Friday deals are real (November 2025)
5. Price Indication Directive 98/6/EC, Article 6a (EUR-Lex)

Rules change. If something here is wrong or out of date, please tell us and we’ll fix it. This guide is general information, not legal advice.