Black Friday is one of the biggest retail shopping days in the U.S., and this year 115 million people will brave crowds on that day in search of the best deals. The National Retail Federation (NRF) says that the average shopper plans to spend about $967 over the holidays, up from $935 last year -- and each one of those shoppers wants that money to go as far as possible, of course.
Many consumers can't help but be enticed by the seemingly endless number of deals during the holiday season, but there are a few things that retailers would prefer the shopping public doesn't know about their too-good-to-be true deals.
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1. Black Friday may not be the best day to shop
Gasp! I know, this is a shocker. Sure, there are amazing doorbuster deals that you probably won't find any other time of the year on a select few items, but Black Friday isn't the best day to shop for everything.
For example, you can usually find the best deals on toys closer to Christmas, according to NerdWallet. And while you can certainly find great deals on TVs during Black Friday, you can also find similar television deals just before the Super Bowl.
Also, it may be best to stay away from things like jewelry during the holidays, if you want to save the most money. Lots of people are buying jewelry right now, so there's little incentive for companies to make steep discounts. Instead, wait until the Spring -- and after Valentine's Day -- when people are less likely to be buying something special for their significant other.
2. There's a very limited supply of doorbuster items
The big-ticket items that are drastically marked down -- or at least seemingly so -- are the ones that lure shoppers into stores. And while these deals can be good, there's often a very limited number of them available. Many of the doorbuster deals you see in the Black Friday ad papers and online will say things like "limited quantity" or "no rain checks" in the fine print, and some will even tell you the number of items that'll be available in each store (hint: it's not many).
Many times these deals are meant to get you into the stores with the hope that once you're there you'll spend oodles of money on other items -- even if you don't get the doorbuster deal you initially came for.
3. Some discounts only seem like good deals
You might think that you can outsmart the retailers by scouring all of the ads and comparing prices, but that's not always possible. That's because many retailers sell very similar products (like TVs) with completely different product numbers. This makes it difficult to know whether or not you're getting the best deal.