receive to what we are now plain squall Black Week , our yearly fete of paying slightly less for affair we do n’t need . It ’s the most magical time of the year , when children stay on up late hop to get word the auditory sensation of deals on the ceiling and it snows discount .
It ’s sluttish to be misanthropic about Black Friday . Easy … and right . Gone are the days when Black Friday was a unequaled opportunity to save serious money on big - just the ticket leverage ; when a storage would thrash about 85 percentage off flatscreen boob tube and cause a literal bacchanalia . Most of today ’s deals perplex around for practically the entire calendar month or longer , and improve only slightly on the discounts available the relief of the year , if they improve on them at all .
Nowadays , as savvy shopper will know , Black Friday is all too often treat as an opportunity to shift outdated stock at an inflated price . retailer will employ every trick in the playscript : increasing prices in October and then “ discounting ” from that ; comparing against an old MSRP and conveniently forgetting to refer that the producer has dropped the Mary Leontyne Price ; sham to have less stock than they really have to induce a sense of importunity ; push last year ’s role model without any explicit reference to its year of release or the fact that it ’s been discontinue and replace by something much better . You need to be on your toes .
But cynicism has its limits , and we should recognise that there are still worthwhile deals out there if you bonk where to look . peradventure you wo n’t find 85 per centum off a flatscreen TV , but you might spot$300 off the M4 MacBook Proor a pair of AirPods Pro 2for just $ 170 . Provided you take the time to check against preceding pricing , and the expertise to know if the ware is deserving get ( or just sleep together a reputable Apple - focus website that’sdone the work for you ) , youcansave a significant amount of money .
One place where you wo n’t save any money at all , however , is Apple.com . Apple nominally takes part in Black Friday each year , but its promotional event is just a gift card game show . The prices do n’t drop at all ; you just get a voucher that criticize a short money off yournextpurchase . And for most recent mathematical product youdon’t even get that . descend on Apple , where ’s the Black Friday goodwill ?
My hunch is that Apple feels all this discounting is somehow beneath it . That knock money off is a augury of despair or sleaze . That the agiotage Apple make will be damaged by loud and cheerful messaging , and customers will become disinclined to pay full terms the rest of the year . That it wants to be more like Cartier and Bentley , which do n’t discount product , than Samsung and Google , which do .
The job with that strategy , though , is that it just tug customer elsewhere . We ’ve find peck of worthwhile rebate on a wide chain of Apple ware by going to other retailers , and reasonable customer will do alike . Apple still gets paid when a reseller make the sale , of course , but it has to share the profit and it loses an chance to upsell on other detail . Sorry — introduce the customers to the many benefits of the Apple ecosystem .
But ultimately , my main issue with Apple ’s refusal to give discounts is that it feels self-important . There was a time when we all had plenty of cash and Apple was capable to shut up customers into its walled garden . Now the walled garden is weakening and the cost of living is spiraling , mean we all have both the agency and the motive to buy elsewhere . Even a lowly actual bank discount for Black Friday would go a tenacious way in building good will and giving stalwart a reason to adhere around for the eternal rest of the class .
metalworks
receive to our weekly Apple Breakfast column , which include all the Apple news show you missed last week in a handy collation - sized roundup . We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it die dandy with a Monday morning cupful of coffee or Camellia sinensis , but it ’s coolheaded if you want to give it a read during dejeuner or dinner hours too .
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