How to avoid being scammed on Black Friday

From the associations of consumers invite to «compare prices and not get carried away by discounts

   Black Friday has established itself as one of the most attractive dates for Christmas shopping. The dance of offers is constant, so from the consumer associations invite "to compare prices and not get carried away by discounts" in order to avoid "being victims of a hoax."

The spokesman for Facua-Consumidores en acción has warned on Thursday that many companies "inflate their prices" and then apply discounts that do not affect the reference value of the product.

Therefore, to avoid "cheating", the group has advised the use of new technologies to compare in real time the retail price of a product in different establishments.

"Formerly, the consumer had to go to another store to check if the price of a product was different, not now, now we can look at the platforms which is the establishment that offers the best price," the spokesperson said.

    The Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) has once again monitored for a month the prices of twelve online stores, including Amazon, Carrefour or El Corte Inglés, to check their evolution in that period.

The biggest price decreases

After analyzing more than 13,000 products, he noted that "more than 43% have not changed their price" from October 24 to November 22 last. Regarding those that do vary, the decreases continue to predominate slightly (29.2%) compared to the price increases (27.3%). The products with more frequent drops are the technological ones, such as cameras, mobiles and televisions.

For its part, the General Consumers Association (ASGECO) has highlighted the need to define the reference price, which is "may vary". "Prices are free, if a company decides to increase it the previous week, it can, but in reality they are not providing true information to the consumer," the organization said.

During this year, many shops have extended their offers throughout the week, popularizing the term 'Black Week' over 'Black Friday'. A strategy that, according to the ASGECO, causes the consumer "to lose the notion of what is the real price of a product".

"This creates a frustration and encourages impulse buying , because they also warn that the offer will only last a day or an hour, and that is a way to prevent the consumer from acting with self-control," they lamented.