We are fast approaching the great marketing invention that is Black Friday, but are these offers all they are cracked up to be?
Research from the consumer group Which? suggests that most products are actually cheaper at other times of the year.
However, the Trusted Reviews website claims Black Friday can indeed be the best time to buy many products, particularly tech items.
One way of establishing whether you are getting a bargain or not is to download a price-tracker. This will give you a full history of how much has been charged for any particular item in the past.
There are many price tracker apps available: Google Chrome’s, Trusted Reviews recommends Keepa, which tracks prices on Amazon. CamelCamelCamel does a similar thing for those who don’t use Chrome.
Price Spy tracks prices across hundreds of retailers, including John Lewis and Argos. Idealo claims to track prices across 29,700 different shops in Europe.
Many retailers have their own apps. Many of these will notify consumers when the price of a product has gone down, and by how much.
Read the full BBC News here.
