Are Black Friday Deals Real? How to Check a Discount

The honest short answer

Some Black Friday prices are real reductions, and some are measured against a price the item rarely sold at. The label on the page does not tell you which. What does help is knowing what a "was" price is supposed to mean, how each store defines its own reference price, and a few quick checks you can run before you pay. This guide sticks to official sources: the US Federal Trade Commission's pricing guides, the stores' own pricing pages and, for European shops, the EU's price rules.

What a "was" price is supposed to mean

The FTC's Guides Against Deceptive Pricing (16 CFR Part 233) set out how the FTC reads former-price claims. They are the agency's guidance rather than a separate law, and they have not changed since 2017. In plain English:

• A former price should be the actual price at which the item was openly offered to the public on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period.
• Raising a price for a short time so that a bigger cut can follow makes the former price fictitious. The FTC's own example: a pen that sells at $7.50 is marked up to $10 for a few days, then advertised as "Were $10, Now Only $7.50", which is a false bargain.
• A cut so small that it is meaningless, such as $10 to $9.99, should not be advertised as a reduction.

Compare at, Comp. Value, MSRP and list price

Many price tags compare against something other than the store's own past price. The FTC's guides note that only rarely are all sales of an item made at the manufacturer's suggested retail price or list price, and that a cut from a list price can mislead if the list price is well above the price at which the item actually sells in quantity. A "price elsewhere" claim should reflect what the main stores in the area charge, not a few small outlets. "Compare at" and similar labels are defined by each store, so the next step is to read that store's own definition.

How big stores describe their own reference prices

• Best Buy: its pricing help page (effective 24 January 2025) says a Comp. Value price is based on prices at which the product, or a comparable item, was or in the future will be offered by Best Buy, marketplace sellers, manufacturers, suppliers or other retailers. For new items with an introductory price, the reference is the price it intends to charge after the introductory period. It also says that after a promotion its selling price may be the same as, or even lower than, the reference price.
• Target: its pricing fact sheet (15 October 2026) says it does not use personal information to raise prices and does not change prices by time of day or during high demand, though some discounts apply only in a given store or online.
• Walmart Marketplace: Walmart's seller guide explains that third-party sellers set up their own promotions, shown on Walmart.com with a Reduced Price or Clearance flag and a struck-through Was or List price. On any marketplace, check who is selling the item.

None of this makes a reference price dishonest. It means a struck-through number is not proof of what the item sold for last month.

BOGO, bundles and gift cards with purchase

The FTC's guides say "free", buy-one-get-one and half-price offers mislead if the seller raises the regular price of the item you must buy, cuts its quantity or quality, or hides conditions; the terms should be clear from the start. Store terms show where the real saving lands:

• Target applies a buy-one-get-one style discount to the lowest-priced item. So with items at $40 and $30, "buy one, get one 50% off" takes $15 off $70, about 21% (our arithmetic).
• When Target gives a gift card with a purchase, the gift card's value comes off your refund if you return the item, and promotional gift cards are non-refundable.
• Best Buy defines a bundle price as the sum of the current prices of the items in the bundle.

Do coupon codes stack on Black Friday?

Usually codes replace each other rather than add up, but each store sets its own rules:

• Gap: most of its promotions cannot be combined, but depending on the promotion more than one code may work on one order, for example a free shipping code with a 10% code, and up to five codes and rewards can be used on a single purchase.
• Target: its store card's 5% applies after other discounts, free shipping at $35 is counted after promotions, store promotions exclude items sold by third-party partners, and Target Circle bonuses must be activated before checkout.
• Bed Bath & Beyond: its member discount cannot be combined with other discounts or site sales.

Shopping from an EU store? The 30-day rule

In the European Union, a shop that announces a price reduction must show its prior price, which means the lowest price it charged in the 30 days before the reduction, including any earlier sale price. The European Commission's guidance says this covers percentage discounts, was-and-now prices, Black Friday offers, storewide reductions and codes offered to most customers. In the Commission's example, a "50% off" item whose lowest price in the previous 30 days was €100, although it last sold at €160, must show €100 as the prior price. The EU Court of Justice confirmed in the 2024 Aldi Süd case that percentage reductions must be worked out from that prior price. The rule does not cover comparisons with a recommended retail price or another shop's price, and it does not apply to UK shops, which have their own rules. Our guide to Italian sales rules shows how it works in one country.

A 60-second check before you buy

• Note the model number and compare the same model in other stores, as the FTC suggests.
• Work out the total cost, including shipping, taxes and fees.
• Check who sells it: a marketplace seller may set its own reference price.
• Read the store's definition of its "was" or "compare at" price.
• Look at recent prices. Google Shopping shows, for many products, whether a price is high, low or typical compared with the past three months, and lets you track a price (where available).
• Read the return rules before you buy, because sale and clearance items often have different terms.
• Pay by credit card, which the FTC says gives you the most protection if something goes wrong.

The offers we have checked for 2026 are on our Black Friday deals page, and all our guides are in the Black Friday hub.

How we checked

On 17 October 2026 we read the FTC's Guides Against Deceptive Pricing on the US government's eCFR site, the FTC's online shopping advice, the European Commission's guidance on the prior-price rule and the 2024 Aldi Süd judgment, Best Buy's pricing help page, Target's pricing fact sheet and promotion terms, Walmart's marketplace seller guide, Gap's payment options page, Bed Bath & Beyond's member discount page and Google's price tracking help. We have not tracked prices ourselves and do not quote anyone's statistics. This guide is general information, not legal advice, and is written by the SavingArena Editorial Team.