Black Friday has become the one day of the year when Canadians congratulate themselves for spending money they weren’t planning to spend.
A $300 jacket marked down to $180? Fantastic! You saved $120. Except, if you didn’t need the jacket, you actually spent $180.
Welcome to what I call deal delusion: the belief that getting a discount automatically means making a smart financial decision.
According to Deloitte Canada’s 2026 Holiday Retail Outlook, 78 per cent of Canadians are hunting for discounts, while 63 per cent believe retailers are raising prices more than necessary.
Let’s be clear: Black Friday — which falls on Nov. 27 this year — isn’t the villain. It’s a massive retail event that drives business, supports jobs and delivers genuine savings. Retailers have every reason to compete for our dollars.
Yet we’re increasingly suspicious of prices and remarkably susceptible to a good sale. That’s the paradox of Black Friday. Retailers aren’t just influencing what we pay. They’re influencing what we believe something is worth.
Don’t let the discount determine the value
There’s a psychological phenomenon called anchoring, where our brains latch onto a number to judge whether something is a good deal.
Imagine an appliance advertised at $199, marked down from $400. Suddenly, $199 feels like a bargain because you’re comparing it to $400. You’re focused on the $201 you’re supposedly saving, rather than whether the appliance is worth $199 to you.
Here’s the catch: the retailer has given you the number to compare against. In Canada, the Competition Act prohibits misleading ordinary selling price claims. Retailers must substantiate advertised regular prices rather than invent inflated ones. Still, a legitimate discount doesn’t automatically make something worth buying.
Ignore the crossed-out price. Ask what you’d willingly pay without seeing the discount. If the item meets a genuine need or brings meaningful enjoyment, fits your budget and costs less than you’re willing to pay, you’ve found a deal worth taking.
Don’t let urgency make your decisions
Black Friday is built around FOMO. Limited quantities, flash sales, countdown clocks and endless social media reminders that you’d better buy now or miss out.
These tactics can exploit loss aversion, our tendency to feel losses more intensely than equivalent gains. Suddenly, missing a sale feels like losing money. It isn’t. The Competition Bureau warns that misleading countdown timers and false low-stock claims can constitute deceptive marketing.
My rule? Never let a retailer’s deadline become your financial emergency. For anything not on your shopping list, impose a 72-hour cooling-off period. If the sale disappears, so be it. There will always be another promotion.
Calculate what you’re giving up
Every dollar spent on something you don’t need is a dollar unavailable for something you genuinely value.
That’s opportunity cost.
Consider five irresistible $100 purchases. That’s $500 diverted from debt repayment, savings, travel or simply more breathing room in your budget. Five little bargains can become one expensive distraction from bigger financial goals.
Now consider the opposite. A $200 winter coat worn 200 times costs $1 per wear. A $75 dress worn twice costs $37.50 per wear. Neither purchase is inherently wrong. What matters is whether the spending delivers value to you.
Sometimes an expensive concert, memorable trip or quality item you’ll use for years is worth every penny. Wise frugality isn’t about choosing the cheapest option. It’s about choosing deliberately.
Make your shopping list before the sales begin
Here’s my final rule: Decide what you want before retailers tell you what you should want.
Write your list, establish a maximum price for each purchase and compare prices before Black Friday. AI can help research alternatives and compare specifications, but verify prices and availability yourself.
The goal isn’t to win Black Friday. It’s to make sure your money is still working for you long after the discounts disappear. Because a discount should change the price, not your priorities.
This article was originally published in The Star. Lesley-Anne Scorgie is a Toronto-based personal finance columnist and a freelance contributing columnist for the Star.
