“if you are looking for a bargain this

Christmas then you’re probably getting

yourself ready to find a steal in

tomorrow’s Black Friday deals but maybe

we should be thinking twice before

partying with our cash as research

suggest that up to 98 of deals were not

worth buying in last year’s sales at the

consumer Group which compared tens of

thousands of prices and found that

almost all of the deals were cheaper all

the same price at other times of the

year not only that but you might not be

getting the best quality too a trading

standards have removed hundreds of

potentially counterfeit products from

Instagram ahead of the Black Friday sale

so is the famous big pre-Christmas scale

a Sam a scam I’m delighted to be joined

Now by Harry Wallop consumer journalist

Harry I haven’t seen you for ages it’s

lovely to see you I was so pleased to

know you were going to be talking to us

about this topic right Black Friday or

is it going to be all it’s cracked up to

be

I would love to see you too Bev um well

I think you know which got a lot of very

big uh headlines for that uh that sort

of scary stat that 98 of deals just

weren’t worth it on Black Friday if you

dig in a little the key thing was that

prices were either cheaper at another

time in the year or they were the same

price so what you do have in some

circumstances is that things do get cut

in price at Black Friday but they then

just stay that price all the way up till

Christmas and under that category which

would say it was a bad deal and I think

that’s a little unfair that the more the

more uh truthful statistic is that 46

were cheaper so not the same price were

cheaper than at some other point of the

year but Black Friday is like any sale

that we used to have it’s like the

January sales there are some good deals

there are some rubbish deals you just

need to do your homework

um Harry do you know if there are any

particular types of products that might

be dipping at the moment and then might

go up again in the run-up to Christmas

I’m thinking Tech or anything like that

toys

yeah absolutely so there’s um one of the

best things you should do if you’re

doing your research is go onto one of

those price comparison sites and they’re

excellent ones now that don’t just do

the utilities and insurance and boring

things they do products and any product

they do clothes and they do air fryers

and they do fridges uh and there’s price

spy and idealo and and all sorts one

called price Runner has gone through the

data and they have worked out uh what is

cheaper now than a couple of months ago

and what’s more expensive so Excuse me

while I look at my notes uh so

turntables uh vinyl turntables very

popular with the teens uh they are 27

cheaper than a couple of months ago

remote control toys have been cut by 32

power tools not a very sexy Christmas

present but hey maybe uh that’s down 27

but some things have gone up so games

consoles are more expensive uh 17 more

expensive than just two months ago

toiletries and jewelry are both up

compared with a couple of months ago is

that right now you’re you’re a dad I

know that what what

Christmas with your with your consumer

expert head on do you set yourself a

budget for your Christmas presents or

and then stick to it or how do you do it

I I’ve been known to kind of buy things

in October completely forget about them

and find them in March because I’m that

disorganized well I found something

actually only last week in the present

cupboard we have a present cupboard I

bought in America on a work trip for a

nephew uh from the land of Fisher Price

I was at Fisher-Price headquarters I was

so excited to discover it uh that I’d

already got the Christmas present so it

happens to the best of us look you know

each family does it differently we have

tried to set price limits in the past

you know let’s only buy presents worth

20 pounds each and then there’s no

arguments but then people cheat you know

and they get around it with sort of

clever methods I mean I think

that I mean personally the thing I I

insist that everyone does is make a

Christmas list of things you need

because I might as well get you

something that you want the kind of

tokenistic thing that basically just

ends up in Oxfam seems a pointless waste

of money and and resources for everyone

involved and the other thing I’m really

going big on this year is refurbished

you know there’s so much technology that

it has an element of inbuilt

obsolescence the expectation that every

year you should get a new smartphone

it’s crazy there’s just no need you know

the the Apple iPhone or the Samsung

Galaxy that came out two years ago is

really good it’s full of fantastic get

it refurbished you can save 200 quid by

going to a very reputable retailer and

they will refurbish it and it’s

basically as good as new yeah and I did

that recently with my daughter’s new

phone she had no idea she thought it was

a new one I just got a refurbished one

and it was in a relatively new looking

box and you know she didn’t need

anything better than that frankly

um Harry Wallop thank you so much it’s

lovely you I’m not going to say happy

Christmas because it’s way too early but

thank you for your advice on that and no

doubt we will talk to you uh in the

run-up to Christmas about what else is

on offer thank you so much Harry Walker

consumer journalist

“