7 Black Friday deals you should avoid

If you plan on braving the post-Thanksgiving shopping madness, make standing in endless lines worth your wait by skipping these products

A customer carts away a big screen TV from a Best Buy store in California during last year's Black Friday
(Image credit: Mark Samala/ZUMA Press/Corbis)

After stuffing themselves silly with turkey, many Americans jet over to their nearest Walmart or Best Buy to take advantage of Black Friday — the busiest shopping day of the year thanks to retailers dramatically slashing prices to kick off the holiday shopping season. And while a few salivating deal-hunters have already been pitching tents since Monday, for the rest of us, braving the mob can be a torturous exercise in human depravity. To make matters worse, many so-called "bargains" end up not really being bargains at all. While some items like electronics and DVDs see heavy markdowns, they're merely ploys to lure sleep-deprived shoppers into big-box stores, which surreptitiously price broader merchandise at "levels that won't kill profits," says Dana Mattioli at The Wall Street Journal. Which not-so-discounted products should you avoid like the plague? Here, seven deals that aren't really deals at all:

1. Toys

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us