Although Black Friday was supposed to be an important day both for retailers and shoppers, in Serbia, prices did not go down significantly while some shops didn’t even give real discounts. On the contrary…
Some shops increased the prices, so in addition to queues in front of some stores in shopping malls in the middle of the worst week since the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic, this shopping weekend was marked by the tricks used by certain retailers.
In the US, the country from which Black Friday originates, this day was used to sell goods close to expiry date at significantly discounted prices – between 70 and 90%.
In Serbia, discounts are not that big, and even the minimum discounts of 10 or 20% are in fact often false, because retailers raise prices before Black Friday starts, only to lower them on the day, thus charging the standard and not discounted prices.
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The readers of the Reddit forum notices that a laptop model Lenovo, which cost 154,999 dinars in one of Gigatron’s stores in September; was sold on Black Friday at 25% discounted price, i.e. 158,329 dinars. According to the advertisement, shoppers would have saved 52,780 dinars, because the retail price had increased to 211,109 dinars.
These prices are no longer displayed on Gigatron’s website because Black Friday has passed and there is no longer a specific model in the offer.
Gigatron’s Sales Manager, Predrag Manojlović, says that Gigatron has been operating in Serbia for 18 years and that they cannot afford false advertising or inadequate pricing, consumer offers and services.
He notes that, globally, due to the coronavirus pandemic, there is a serious shortage of laptops due to reduced production and at the same time, the demand has gone up because many people are now working from home.
“With each new import, the goods we purchased are getting more expensive, so this directly affects the growth in retail prices in accordance with the law. It is true that the retail prices of a couple of products changed 20 days before the Black Friday weekend, that is out a total of 2,573 articles that we sell, but it is also true that we reacted immediately and that all the people who bought these products were contacted and compensated. We have assured our customers that our company policy will not allow for such situations”, Manojlović adds.
(Danas, 01.12.2020)
https://www.danas.rs/ekonomija/trgovci-pred-crni-petak-dizali-pa-spustali-cene/
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