by Robin Fiedler
Before venturing out on Black Friday, shoppers should prepare an attack plan. Research involves knowing the times stores open and comparing items being offered as doorbusters or loss leaders. Visiting each retailer’s individual website or combing through circulars in the mail or newspapers is time consuming, but that’s when the Internet comes in to maximize time. 
Consumer Reports suggest that shoppers not only check out one or two retailers, but that they compare deals using consumer discount and discussion forum websites. Tightwad Tod Marks says, “There’s no shortage of Web sites that obtain and publish advance notice of Black Friday deals at leading retailers and e-tailers.” He is so right, but he fails to mention that in the past few years, those websites have been hit with legal action called “takedown” notices.
Now, I remember the “takedown” from high school wrestling, and the metaphor works here. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was passed to protect copyrighted music and video, but now the big retailers are exercising the DMCA and claiming their prices are copyrighted. Eddan Katz reports, “When major retail stores including Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Staples, and Office Max learned that content from their upcoming “black Friday” sales circulars was being posted on the Web, they sent their lawyers to get the information taken down.” To avoid litigation, the web sites complied.
What? Prices have a copyright? And besides the copyright, Katz adds that the big retailers also made the claim that postings on other websites “are a misappropriation of their trade secrets of the ‘Black Friday’ sale prices.” Why would the retailers be so Bah Humbug about free advertising on other web sites? Well, they fear losing business because shoppers can quickly compare deals of several retailers on the same item in seconds. Seriously though, promotions are intense business. In 2004 businesses spent $429 billion (close to 4% of the GDP) on all promotion spending, according to the Promotion Marketing Association.
Alright so the takedowns make shoppers’ research more arduous, but the retailers still offer those doorbusters and loss leaders. Doorbusters may be a metaphor, but in recent years shoppers have literally busted down a few doors. Marks explains, “Black Friday earned the reputation as a bargain-hunter’s paradise because retailers feature a few high-profile, attention-grabbing toys or electronic items at or below cost to draw shoppers in.” Why the doorbusting? Doorbuster items are offered in limited quantities, and for shoppers it becomes imperative to be the first in the ‘door.’ As Marks notes, toys and electronics are the most popular doorbusters. They are, after all, the top holiday gift items.
And most doorbusters are basically loss leaders, which mean items are priced so low that the retailer takes a loss. Consumer Reports cautions, “. . . products are typically sold as ‘loss leaders’ and are usually offered in extremely limited quantities.” However, that ‘loss’ on one item ‘leads’ the consumers into the store like a pack of dogs chasing after one bone. Once in the store, shoppers buy other items and retailers’ profits make up for the ‘loss leader.’ Recently, some retailers, such as K-mart according to Marks, offer loss leaders throughout the day, not just when the store opens. Now instead of the early morning stampede for the doorbuster, by offering loss leaders throughout the day, retailers keep shoppers in the store waiting for the next dog bone to be thrown into the isle. Ruff! Ruff!
Footnotes
Katz, Eddan. “Bargain Shoppers Chilled by Retailers’ DMCA Threats.” Chilling Effects. 22 Nov. 2002. http://www.chillingeffects.org/weather.cgi?WeatherID=280
Marks, Tod. “What to Know Before Hitting the Stores on Black Friday.” ConsumerReports.org 21 Nov. 2008. http://pressroom.consumerreports.org/pressroom/2008/11/consumer-reports-what-to-know-before-hitting-th.html
Promotion Marketing Association: 7th Annual State-of-the- Promotion Industry- 2005 Report. Sept. 2005 http://www.pmalink.org/resources/pma2005report.pdf
COUPON TIME
Our Black Friday sale page is here to stay! Check out the many deals you can score without leaving your home at 2 AM.