The Great Australian Sales Showdown: Black Friday vs Boxing Day
There’s something uniquely Australian about the way we’ve embraced Black Friday while simultaneously clinging to our beloved Boxing Day sales tradition. It’s like we’ve hedged our bets on consumer capitalism – why have one massive sale period when you can have two?
I’ve been thinking about this lately after seeing a discussion online from someone furnishing a new place and trying to work out the optimal time to buy. It’s a question that hits close to home for anyone who loves a good bargain (guilty as charged), and it’s not as straightforward as you might think.
The conventional wisdom seems to be shifting. Black Friday has become the heavyweight champion in recent years, at least according to people working in retail. One commenter mentioned they chat with their local appliance store manager who flat-out says Black Friday is now “the big one.” That tracks with what I’ve noticed too – retailers have really thrown their weight behind it, probably because it kicks off the Christmas shopping season and gets people spending early.
But here’s where it gets interesting, and this is the bit that really resonated with me: it’s not actually about which sale period is better. It’s about which specific item you want and when that particular model goes on sale.
Someone in the discussion laid it out perfectly – if you’re tossing up between Laptop A and Laptop B, one might be deeply discounted on Black Friday while the other gets slashed on Boxing Day. You can’t just ask “which sale is better for laptops?” because the answer is “both, depending on the laptop.” It’s frustratingly specific, but that’s the reality of modern retail.
This matches my experience completely. A couple of years back, I needed a new external drive for backing up my development work and family photos. I’d been watching a 12TB model for weeks, tracking the price like it was a stock I’d invested in. Black Friday rolled around and boom – $100 off. But I also remember scoring an absolute ripper of a deal on Boxing Day a few years before that on some home theatre gear that hadn’t budged in price during Black Friday.
The strategy that seems to work – and I wish someone had spelled this out for me years ago – is to pick your exact items by October or early November and then monitor them religiously. Create a spreadsheet, bookmark the pages, set up price alerts if you can find a service that works (apparently PriceSpy doesn’t function here anymore, which is annoying). Then when either sale period hits, you’ll know instantly if you’re getting a genuine discount or just clever marketing.
This is where my inner skeptic kicks in, and frankly, it should be kicking in for you too. Retailers aren’t stupid. They know we’re watching. There’s a well-documented tactic of gradually increasing prices in the lead-up to major sales so the “discount” looks more impressive than it actually is. That $2,000 LG fridge you’re eyeing? It might have been $1,850 in September before mysteriously becoming $2,300 in early November so it can be “reduced” to $1,950 for Black Friday.
This is the sort of behaviour that really gets under my skin. We have consumer protection laws in this country, and retailers should be held to account when they engage in dodgy pricing practices. The ACCC has cracked down on this sort of thing before, but it still happens far too often.
What about marketplace options though? One person suggested checking Facebook Marketplace and similar platforms, and honestly, for furniture especially, this can be brilliant. Melbourne’s full of people moving houses, upgrading, or just having a clear-out. I’ve seen barely-used mid-century modern pieces go for a fraction of retail price. Sure, you need to factor in pickup logistics and the time to inspect items, but if you’re not in a rush, it’s worth scrolling through regularly.
The question of whether to be flexible on brands versus hunting for specific models is an interesting one. If you’ve done your research – say, looked at CHOICE reviews and decided you want a particular LG model because it’s got the features and reliability you need – then you’re playing a waiting game for that exact item to go on sale. But if you’re genuinely flexible, you can be more opportunistic. Maybe that Samsung model you hadn’t considered ends up being $300 cheaper and has nearly identical specs.
My DevOps background has taught me the value of monitoring and metrics, and shopping is weirdly similar. You need data points, you need to track changes over time, and you need to be ready to act when the conditions are right. It’s like waiting for your CI/CD pipeline to give you the green light, except instead of deploying code, you’re deploying your credit card.
Looking ahead to 2025, there’s also a growing sense that both sales periods might be losing their lustre. Someone mentioned that “probably neither” is the answer anymore, and I can see where they’re coming from. When everything’s always on sale, nothing really is. We’re in this weird perpetual state of “deals” where retailers have trained us to never pay full price, but the “sale” prices are just the actual prices with extra steps.
So what’s the practical takeaway here? If you’re furnishing a place and you’ve got the luxury of time, start your research now. Not in November – now. Figure out exactly what you want, down to the model number. Track those prices. Then be ready to pounce during either Black Friday or Boxing Day, whichever delivers the genuine discount on your specific items. Don’t get caught up in the hype of “the sale” – focus on the actual dollars coming off the actual items you actually need.
And maybe, just maybe, check Marketplace first. There’s something satisfying about getting a quality piece of furniture from someone local who’s just happy to see it go to a good home, and your wallet will thank you too. Plus, it’s better for the environment than buying everything new, which should matter to all of us.
The sales will keep coming, the marketing will keep shouting, but armed with specific knowledge and a bit of patience, you can still find genuine value in both periods. Just don’t believe the hype without checking the receipts first.