Is Black Friday only masquerading as the best day for deals?

It’s doing just that, at least when it comes to consumer electronics, according to a University of Washington data expert quoted by the New York Times.

“The bottom line is, Black Friday is for the retailers to go from the red into the black,” Oren Etzioni told the Times after conducting an analysis of “billions of prices of consumer electronics.” “It’s not really for people to get great deals on the most popular products.”

Etzioni said the best deals on electronics typically occur in early December. The Times story also quoted others suggesting that the prices of apparel and toys also fall in the weeks after Black Friday.

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