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by pflenker 1300 days ago
> If they can offer great prices all year round, why not do it? And if they can’t, then who’s paying for the great deal I’m getting today?

Working at a huge online retailer, I can tell you that the prevalent customer expectation is precisely „greatly reduced prices on black friday“. Even if we offered these reduced prices year round, the expectation would be to offer it even cheaper on Black Friday.
2 comments
mc32 1300 days ago
True but… that’s mainly because retailers took an accounting factoid and made it into a promotional holiday and thus set expectations.
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marcosdumay 1300 days ago
It used to be that stores would put on sales items that were languishing at storage. So it was a win-win situation, stores got plenty of customers looking for normally not wanted items at low prices, and customers got a day where they could get items that they didn't value a lot at lower prices.

But, of course, this situation isn't stable.

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