pre-black friday 2024, a disappointment

black friday, an american holiday that has no significant cultural roots except for capitalism, is ever-changing. what started out with mosh pits inside walmarts and sprinting past glass mall doors has slowly evolved into a cycle of mediocre sales, consisting of less predictable, yet underwhelming waves of discounts occurring throughout the weeks leading up to thanksgiving

the black friday & cyber monday that remains so memorable for shoppers usually consists of words like “doorbusters” and “blowout”, which signaled the fact that this was THE time to buy. even though we all didn’t share the experience of walking away with 60 inch TV’s for $99 back in 2010, those deals set the potential for this shopping season

in 2024, however, the excitement, markdowns, and overall sales have come nowhere close to previous years. as more retailers are focused on maximizing overall profit, the overall trend is to extend the sale duration and encourage buyers to spend their holiday funds earlier, but is 30% off a full-price item really going to get anyone to splurge?

as I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, this is a good time for buying gifts or pieces of clothing you were already intent on buying (like a jacket for the colder weather or a trendy trainer), but for deals that will be the highlight of this shopping season, it looks like 2024 might not be the year for that

although it may be too early to speculate if there will be any black friday deals worth the excitement, many of the coupon codes and sales that have already been released imply that this might just be the year of 30-40% off

here at neverpayretail, we won’t settle for your sponsored post of shopping content that’s not even half off. the strategy for this year is finding those deeper markdowns, which won’t come in the form of 50-75% off sales this year. this year will require a bit of more legwork to sift through past season items deeper in the clearance sections of online stores and in-person events

here are a few examples of things to look for amidst a this year’s black friday lackluster experience

tres-bien sale selections

in this economy, not everyone can discount acne studios to 80% off, but retailers can slash their own clothing lines as low as they want to

tres-bien everywhere is their in-house clothing line that takes cues from scandanavian design with materials and craftsmanship better than your average COS sweater. I’ve gotten a wool blend shirt jacket from them that’s held up decently well throughout the years, but unlike me, you don’t have to pay $200+ retail to discover that for yourself

these items advertise an extra 20% off discount that may increase as we get closer to black friday, but either way, paying less than $100 for a well designed european jacket can definitely be the highlight of an otherwise mid black friday sale

*extra 20% off should be applied to the price below, but currently it is not working. it should be fixed in the near future though

despite the lack of excitement behind black friday sales this year, I’ll keep you posted on any serious deals that may drop this year

here are some other sales to look out for:

SVRN: up to 60% off, starts friday (last year it was up to 75% off, but overall their collection of markdowns was pretty good and inventory was selling out fast)

Darkside Initiative: 35% off with code DARKFRIDAY24, sale section has been updated with clearance items over 60% off, which normally doesn’t happen on their site

Packer: 40% off when you spend $400+ (surprisingly, it’s not too hard to reach $400 when shopping for jackets/shoes/pants)

Union: up to 80% off, a lot of selection/sizes are gone, but there’s a few steals left and if they have an extra 20-30% off then that could be a dealbreaker; they could potentially find more inventory in-person on friday too