Black Friday 2025: How to tell a bargain from a blatant rip-off

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Black Friday has turned into South Africa’s unofficial thirteenth pay cheque, only without the payslip. Retailers flood timelines with countdowns, lightning deals and “one day only” banners while shoppers try to juggle wishlists, debit orders, and December plans in one basket. Before you swipe, tap, or scan anything this November, it helps to sharpen your loyalty stacking tricks so the discounts work for you, not the other way round.

The line between a genuine special and an expensive trap is thinner than ever. Social media adverts, one-click payments, and buy-now-pay-later offers collide with tight budgets, rising living costs, and the urge to spoil yourself a little after a long year. Black Friday is a lot better if you walk in with a plan for your data-saving habits,, your budget, and your risk tolerance, instead of letting a retailer’s landing page make those calls for you.

The backdrop: big spend in a stretched economy

Black Friday is not a small blip on South Africa’s calendar anymore. The 2024 Black Friday shopping season was projected to inject tens of billions into the economy across wholesale, retail, and fuel in November, thanks to surging consumer interest. November retail trade sales have also logged some of the strongest year-on-year jumps in recent years, a sign of how much spending has shifted into the Black Friday window.

Banks keep confirming the trend. Black Friday weekends have recorded the highest levels of card and digital spend since banks started tracking the event, with online shopping climbing steadily year on year and dramatically outpacing levels seen just a few years ago. Some banks reported their clients spending more than R25 billion across Black Friday and the following Saturday alone, marking double-digit growth over the previous year. This is no longer “a few deals”; it is a spending surge that can make or break household budgets.

At the same time, household debt sits at roughly 62 to 63 % of disposable income, according to recent national financial bulletins and independent trackers. Credit cards, retail accounts, and personal loans are already doing overtime before Black Friday specials even start. If you are paying off last year’s holiday or that upgrade from two sales ago, more discounted stuff is not automatically a favour to your future self.

Black Friday is not a bonus. It is a marketing calendar event layered on top of an economy where many people are one unexpected debit order away from an overdraft. The context is crucial when you decide whether 40% off a gadget is a smart steal or a very expensive impulse.

Step 1: Decide what “value” means for you this year

Before diving into tricks and traps, decide what you want out of Black Friday. One person is trying to stock up on groceries and cleaning products for the school holidays. Another wants to finally replace a dying laptop. Someone else just wants a small treat that does not wreck the rest of the month. All three are valid, but each needs a different set of rules.

Pick one or two categories where you are allowed to spend, then cap the rand amount. That means “R2,000 for household items” or “one appliance under R5,000”, not “see what looks good on the day”. A hard limit protects you from the “add to cart because it is already discounted” spiral. Once that pot is finished, Black Friday is done, even if the adverts keep glowing.

Black Friday works best when it plays a supporting role in a budget you already set, not when you let it rewrite your priorities in one weekend. Two or three well-priced, pre-planned buys beat a trolley full of things that quietly keep your credit balance in the red for months.

Step 2: Catch fake or exaggerated discounts

Retailers know shoppers anchor on the “was/now” label. The bigger the percentage, the more urgent it feels. That label is not always telling you the full story. Research across multiple markets has shown that only about a third of products reach their lowest price on Black Friday, while many are cheaper at some other point in the same 90-day window. Local investigations have also found that some South African retailers sneakily raise prices in the weeks before Black Friday, then drop them back to normal levels and advertise them as big savings.

Simple checks make a big difference:

• Track prices from early November. Use price-comparison tools or keep your own mini-list for the handful of items you care about.
• Ignore percentage signs that rely on a mystery “original” price you never saw in real life. Compare across stores instead.
• Treat “up to 70% off” as a billboard, not a promise. Often, a small slice of stock hits that number while most items sit closer to 10% or 20%.

If you can't prove the discount with either your own notes or a comparison site, assume you are seeing regular sale pricing dressed up as a once-off miracle. The absence of proof is a signal, not a reason to rush.

A real bargain is dull on paper. You know what it cost last month, you can show that today’s price is lower, and it solves a problem you already had. Anything else is entertainment, not value.

Step 3: Calculate the total cost, not only the tag

Many Black Friday “wins” fall apart when you add the line items retailers would prefer you ignore.

Shipping and delivery
Delivery thresholds matter. An online special on a R350 gadget does not help if you are paying nearly a third of that again in courier fees, and another charge if you need to send it back. Some platforms offer free delivery from a minimum basket size, or subscription models that cut shipping costs in exchange for a monthly fee. If you would never use that subscription after Black Friday, it belongs on the cost side of the equation, not in the savings column.

Returns and rights
Always check whether sale items carry the same return policy as normal stock. Some retailers make discounted products “final sale” or charge a restocking fee. Others expect you to pay courier costs for returns, which can wipe out a modest saving on clothing, shoes, or smaller gadgets.

Guarantees and repairs
An imported appliance on a marketplace site can look cheaper than a locally sourced version, until it breaks, and the only repair option is a third-party workshop in another province. Paying a little more for a product with a clear local warranty and service path is often the smarter decision, especially on phones, laptops, and large appliances.

Interest and fees
Store accounts and pay-later services feel painless on checkout. In reality, the interest and admin fees can turn a 20% discount into a more expensive purchase than the pre-Black-Friday price would have been on a simple cash transaction. If you can't settle the item within a few months, treat the headline discount with suspicion.

If you will still be paying off a “special” when next Black Friday arrives, that deal is not a bargain. It is a long-term rental with your future self footing the bill.

Step 4: Avoid scams disguised as deals

Where money moves, scammers always follow. Fraud-prevention bodies have reported double-digit increases in online purchase scams, and the spike over Black Friday is now a predictable pattern. Banks have repeatedly warned customers about social-media promotions, phishing messages, and fake checkout pages that appear every November.

Common red flags:

• Adverts on social platforms for brands you have never heard of, with no physical address or landline on the contact page.
• Checkout pages that only allow EFT or instant EFT, and no reputable payment gateway with card protection.
• “Special links” sent via WhatsApp, Telegram, or direct message from accounts you cannot verify.
• Prices that sit far below every other retailer, with vague or missing information about warranties and returns.

Scammers rely on urgency. They know you are seeing twenty deals at once and juggling notifications. If a site is glitchy, the spelling is off, contact details look fake, or the bank account is in a personal name, walk away immediately.

Travel and digital goods need extra caution. Consumer-protection bodies have highlighted cases where South Africans chasing discounted flights or holiday deals through social media lost large sums to fake agencies and websites in the run-up to Black Friday. Only book through airlines or agencies you can verify independently, and never pay for travel via a link sent in a DM.

Use payment methods that give you recourse. Credit cards and reputable digital wallets with chargeback protections are safer than EFT into an account you do not recognise. Never share one-time pins, card numbers, or CVV codes over the phone or in a chat, no matter how convincing the “agent” sounds.

If a deal only exists in a group chat, has to be paid by urgent EFT, and disappears the moment you ask for paperwork, treat it as a scam first and a bargain only if it survives serious checking.

Step 5: Build a basic Black Friday game plan

Once you know the tricks retailers and scammers use, you can structure Black Friday around your own rules.

1. Start with your monthly budget, not the sale flyer. Decide how much you can spend after rent, debit orders, transport, and groceries. That amount does not belong to Black Friday by default; allocate only what you can lose without touching essentials.
2. Make a short wishlist. List items in order of priority, with a ceiling price next to each. If the discount does not get the item under that ceiling, you move on.
3. Freeze impulse-friendly payment options. Temporarily lower card limits or remove stored cards from a few shopping apps before the sale. A small bit of friction at checkout stops “maybe” items from sliding in.
4. Keep score in real time. As you buy, log each spend in your banking app notes or a quick spreadsheet. Watching the total climb is a good antidote to one-more-little-thing syndrome.
5. Leave room for life after Black Friday. December still includes transport, food, data, and gifts. A perfect TV is hard to enjoy if you are eating instant noodles on the floor in front of it.

The real Black Friday flex is not finding the wildest discount. It is walking into December with the things you genuinely needed, money left for the month, and no surprise bills from impulse buys you barely remember.

Quick cheat sheet: bargain or blatant rip-off?

Use this as a sanity check before tapping “pay”:

You are probably getting a bargain if:

• The price is clearly lower than it was in the past month, and you have checked at least one other store.
• You already planned to buy this item, and it fits inside the budget cap you set before the sale.
• The seller is reputable, with clear contact details, reviews, and a decent return policy.
• You can pay it off in full within three months without touching emergency savings.

You are probably looking at a rip-off if:

• The discount hangs on a “was” price you never saw before and cannot verify.
• Delivery, returns, and extended warranty costs cancel out most of the savings.
• Payment has to happen via obscure methods, or the retailer pushes you toward store credit or pay-later plans you do not understand.
• You feel rushed, confused, or cannot explain to someone else why you picked this item instead of waiting.

Black Friday 2025 does not have to be a financial landmine. With a bit of preparation, a few price checks, and some refusal to be bullied by timers and countdown banners, you can keep the best parts of the shopping season and leave the traps behind.

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