yea black friday pricing havent been worth it since pre-pandemic. around that time they started increasing the price of product about 2-3 times about a month or two prior that way they can show a "30% off" deal, that way you can spend 270% of the price instead of 100% of the price.

Then they used the lack of event sales as the excuse of why it isn't worth doing decent black friday deals because shocker, as it turns out if someone is buying a high ticket item, chances are they have done the research and have been wanting it, so therefore than can see the TV worth 200$ being sold at 300$ at a 30% off is just a pure scam.

It's also the reasoning that many retailers sell specific event merchandise using its own UPC. They don't want the consumer being able to do the research to see they are being ripped off.