From Wirecutter: Don't Get Swindled on Black Friday

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Daily – From Wirecutter: Don't Get Swindled on Black Friday

Release Date: November 29, 2024

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Introduction: Navigating the Black Friday Frenzy

In this special episode of The Daily, hosts Michael Barbaro and Sabrina Tavernise present an in-depth collaboration with Wirecutter, the renowned product review site under The New York Times. Titled "Don't Get Swindled on Black Friday," the episode aims to equip listeners with strategies to identify genuine deals amidst the chaos of one of America's most anticipated shopping events.

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The Significance of Black Friday

Black Friday has evolved beyond a single day into a sprawling week of deals extending through Cyber Monday. The National Retail Federation projects sales exceeding $900 billion for November and December 2024 alone. Christine Cyr Clissette reflects on her personal transformation from a retail reporter who observed the chaotic scenes every Black Friday to someone who now appreciates its quintessentially American spirit.

"Black Friday is this strange, endearing, wild and quintessentially American holiday."
— Christine Cyr Clissette [00:33]

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Behind the Scenes: Identifying Real Deals

The heart of the episode features Nathan Burrow, Wirecutter's Senior Deals Editor, who demystifies the intricate process of sifting through thousands of potential deals to spotlight the most authentic price reductions.

"We're checking price alerts that we've set in order to identify price drops. It's about vetting those thousands of sales and identifying the ones that are actually real price drops."
— Nathan Burrow [03:09]

In the previous year, Wirecutter reviewed 147,712 potential deals, recommending a mere 1,344—approximately 1%—that met their stringent criteria for genuine savings.

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Challenges in Finding Genuine Deals

Nathan outlines three primary obstacles shoppers face in discerning true bargains:

1. Price Manipulation and MSRP Confusion

   Retailers often manipulate the Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) to exaggerate discounts. Wirecutter counters this by using the concept of street price, an average of everyday prices excluding inflated list prices.

   "We use something called street price... to identify what a reader would pay on a normal basis without the sort of price manipulation."
   — Nathan Burrow [10:43]

2. Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) Policies

   MAP agreements prevent retailers from advertising prices below a set threshold, making it harder for consumers to see the lowest possible prices upfront. This often necessitates additional steps, such as adding items to the cart to reveal hidden discounts.

   "They can't openly advertise a price that's lower than a predetermined amount, which makes determining the everyday price difficult."
   — Nathan Burrow [11:27]

3. Quality vs. Price Concerns

   Deep discounts on seemingly low-priced items may indicate inferior quality or models designed specifically for heavy discounting, potentially deceiving buyers seeking reliable products.

   "Things that are cheap during Black Friday might actually be cheaply made... it's important to be cautious when shopping."
   — Nathan Burrow [14:59]

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Categories with the Best Deals

Wirecutter highlights that while discounts are pervasive across numerous categories, small kitchen appliances and electronics—including TVs and laptops—typically offer the most substantial savings. This is partly due to retailers aiming to clear out older inventory to make room for new models.

"There are pretty good deals on almost every product category... particularly good deals in small kitchen appliances and electronics."
— Nathan Burrow [20:02]

Conversely, categories like the latest high-end tech (e.g., new MacBook Air models) and items from non-participating brands (such as REI and Patagonia) generally do not feature significant Black Friday discounts.

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Smart Shopping Tips

Nathan provides actionable advice to help consumers navigate Black Friday more effectively:

1. Verify Model Numbers: Ensure the exact model you're purchasing matches the one reviewed or advertised to avoid receiving inferior versions.

   "Match the exact model number from the review or ad against the product listing to guarantee you're getting exactly what you wanted."
   — Nathan Burrow [23:00]

2. Utilize Browser Extensions Wisely: Tools like Honey or Capital One can offer coupon codes, but users should be aware of potential privacy implications and affiliate tracking.

   "Browser extensions track your browsing information and collect affiliate revenue when you make a purchase."
   — Nathan Burrow [23:50]

3. Avoid the Google Cul-de-Sac: Relying solely on Google searches can limit options to prioritized retailers, potentially excluding better deals elsewhere.

   "Google isn't as broad as you think; they're incentivized to send you to specific retailers, which may not always offer the best deals."
   — Nathan Burrow [27:01]

4. Read Sales Periodicals: Traditional sales flyers, though often discarded, can contain valuable information about upcoming deals.

   "Sales periodicals are released in advance of events like Black Friday and can guide you to the best deals of the year."
   — Nathan Burrow [16:42]

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Conclusion: Staying Informed and Cautious

The episode underscores the importance of due diligence in holiday shopping. By understanding pricing strategies, verifying product authenticity, and leveraging the right tools, consumers can maximize savings without falling prey to deceptive sales tactics. Nathan emphasizes the need for continuous vigilance beyond just Black Friday to ensure long-term savings and satisfaction.

"Do your homework and look for the features you want. Don't just trust the photo 100%."
— Christine Cyr Clissette [16:19]

Listeners are encouraged to follow Wirecutter's curated deals and stay informed through trusted sources to make the most of their Black Friday shopping experience.

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Additional Resources

For comprehensive Black Friday deals and more expert advice, visit Wirecutter's Black Friday Coverage.

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This summary captures the essence of the "Don't Get Swindled on Black Friday" episode from The Daily, providing listeners with valuable insights and practical tips to navigate the holiday shopping season effectively.

Transcript

[Michael]

The new Showtime original series the Agency is now streaming on Paramount. The 10 episode spy thriller features a stellar cast including Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Jodie Turner Smith and Richard Gere. The Agency follows Martian, a covert CIA agent whose career, real identity and mission are pitted against his heart, hurling him into a deadly game of international intrigue and espionage. New episodes of the Agency are now streaming on the Paramount with showtime plan. Visit paramountplus.com to get hey, it's Michael.

[Retail Reporter]

Today, as you know, is Black Friday, A day that looms oddly large in my life. For years I was this newspaper's retail reporter. And so every Friday after Thanksgiving, I would wake up at four in the morning, print circulars in my hand and dash from store to store reporting on the latest door buster deals and the bleary eyed shoppers literally climbing over each other in order to buy them. And what I came to understand, and ultimately to appreciate is that Black Friday is this strange, endearing, wild and quintessentially American holiday. And today we are celebrating it with a special episode from our colleagues over at Wirecutter who started their own podcast earlier this year. You probably know Wirecutter product reviews, gift guides. They're very good at what they do and they put together a comprehensive guide to Black Friday that we're now going to share with you. So without further ado, here is today's special Black Friday episode from Wirecutter.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

From the New York Times, you're listening to the Wire Cutter Show. I'm Christine Cyr Clissett.

[Kyra Blackwell]

I'm Kyra Blackwell.

[Rosie Guerin]

And I'm Rosie Guerin. And today is a big day for Wire Cutter. It's Black Friday. This year, tens of millions of people are expected to go online or on foot to shop for Black Friday deals. And as is the case every year, people are going to spend money. A lot of it. This year, the National Retail Federation is projecting over $900 billion will have been spent in November and December alone.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

These days, Black Friday has come to refer to an almost entire week of deals today through Cyber Monday. And while it's the single biggest shopping weekend of the year, it's also a day that's become increasingly confusing for shoppers. More days of advertised sales, bigger pile of things to sift through. Plus, retailers have gotten really good at the game, to the point where much of what looks like a deal that's too good to be true actually is too good to be true.

[Kyra Blackwell]

So every year, our entire newsroom, about 100 journalists across dozens of beats, scours the Internet to Find true bargains. And every year, there's one person whose job it is to oversee all of this, and he's here with us today, Senior Deals editor, Nathan Burrow.

[Nathan Burrow]

Hi, everyone.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Hi.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Hey.

[Nathan Burrow]

Thank you.

[Kyra Blackwell]

So, Nathan, can you tell us how deal sweeping works and what you guys are up to on Black Friday?

[Nathan Burrow]

Absolutely. During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, my team is going through all of the potential deals that are flagged by our expert editorial staff. We are also searching organically out in the world. We're checking price alerts that we've set in order to identify price drops. And so really, it's about going through the thousands upon thousands of sales that we see out there, vetting those sales, and then identifying the ones that are actually real price drops.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Okay, so can you start by telling us exactly how many products you've reviewed this year?

[Nathan Burrow]

Well, we don't know quite yet because we're recording prior to Black Friday coming to a close. But I can tell you that last year we reviewed 147,712 potential deals, and it's never failed to grow year over year. So it'll probably be a little more than that this year.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Wow, that is so many products, Nathan. And of those, how many did we actually recommend?

[Nathan Burrow]

Ultimately, we only recommended 1,344, and that's about 1%, which is pretty consistent in terms of the percentage that we identify that are real deals over the years.

[Kyra Blackwell]

That is wild, broad strokes. What are you actually looking for? How does something make the cut?

[Nathan Burrow]

It has to be a substantial discount, a meaningful discount on, of course, a quality product. Let me give you an example. The UE Wonderboom 4. That's Wirecutter's top portable Bluetooth speaker. Right now it's on sale. I don't know if you hear my air quotes there, but it's on sale very regularly at 80. But we've observed the price fall to $75 on a few occasions. It's been as low as $70 on one occasion. And since products in the Bluetooth speaker category tend to gradually fall in price from the time that they're released, we think a reasonable target for the speaker right now is 70 to $75. We're looking for around about the lowest price we've ever seen. $80, which is consistently framed as a sale by retailers, is not a real discount anymore.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

That is so tricky. So you're actually, when you're looking for the deals that you're going to feature on our deals page, you're actually looking for deals that are Significantly lower than the lowest prices you've seen all year, right?

[Nathan Burrow]

Yes. Typically we look for something that either matches or betters that lowest price we've seen all year. And on Black Friday, you'll see a lot of retailers offer what appears to be the best price of the year, 30 to 40%. But that's not actually true. Often they're overstating the full price because they inflate the list price. So it's actually usually a smaller percentage than that. More like 10 to 15% off the regular street price. And we're looking for something that's even better than that, 10 to 15% in order to make our cut. Really, it's going to vary from product category to product category. So for something like a MacBook Air, which can retail for over $1,000 depending on the configuration, a 10 discount can be really impactful. But for something under $100, we prefer much larger discounts percentage wise, because we want the amount saved to be meaningful. And ultimately, if you go through the deals that we post during Black Friday Cyber Monday this entire week, the average percentage off we generally settle on is around 20 to 25%. It's a far cry from the massive discount percentages that a lot of retailers will claim they're giving you, but it's really a realistic percentage off that is truly, it's some of the better pricing of the year, and we find that that's consistent across product categories during Black Friday.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Are there any new categories you're recommending this year?

[Nathan Burrow]

Yes. So Wirecutter has started to recommend a lot more in the way of apparel and cosmetics and gifts. You'll probably see more deals highlighted on drugstore cosmetics, makeup and other beauty items from Ulta and Sephora this holiday season.

[Rosie Guerin]

Nathan, has this job gotten easier or harder over the years?

[Nathan Burrow]

Unfortunately, it's gotten harder. There are more retailers involved than ever before in these big deal events, and the shopping experience is honestly more opaque than ever before. And so we're trying to sort of puncture the hype. We're trying to identify the real stuff. And the sales have also gotten longer, which makes for some confusing dynamics for shoppers. We saw early Black Friday sales start around the turn of the month between October and November. And so really at that point, it's about identifying what you should wait until Black Friday to purchase, because a lot of retailers were count on you to sort of not take advantage of price protection policies that are in place even if you got a sale November 1st. And there's a price protection policy in place that would allow you to get refunded. They sort of count on you not taking advantage of that, not going back in store and getting refunded. The difference when the price drops another 10% on Black Friday. So when that dynamic exists, it puts the onus back on the shopper to take action to get that difference refunded. And in a sense, it kind of operates like a rebate where shoppers, you know, they may take advantage of it, but they often don't. In that sense, retailers are potentially ensuring that they're able to pad the bottom.

[Rosie Guerin]

Line a little bit, I imagine. Also, the job has gotten harder because there are these other retailer, quote unquote holidays that pop up throughout the year.

[Nathan Burrow]

Yeah, at this point, there are three different Amazon prime events that pop up throughout the year, as opposed to the one when I started at Wirecutter. And then during those windows, we're seeing sales from other major retailers like Best Buy, like Target, Walmart, and of course the smaller retailers. And direct to consumer retailers get in on the act at various points throughout the year as well, especially during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday window.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Okay, so Nathan, let's get into why it's gotten so hard to find an actually good deal.

[Nathan Burrow]

So there are three main reasons, and the first one is related to price and how it's presented. And that's the msrp. Probably seen that abbreviation. It stands for Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price. So basically, in a nutshell, the MSRP is the term used for prices suggested by manufacturers for retailers. Those retailers pay wholesale prices and then they mark the price up to a price of their choosing. In the modern day, MSRP is often ignored by retailers in favor of their own pricing approach. So you'll see list prices that are totally divorced from msrp. I will say it's often used as a benchmark to set pricing or to give the perception of a discount. And we've all heard those ads from car dealers that tout their price versus msrp. More often than not, it's really just another form of discount manipulation.

[Kyra Blackwell]

So how does your team work around this to get to the true discount?

[Nathan Burrow]

So we use something called street price, and that's a term we use for what we perceive the everyday price of a given product to be. If there are a lot of price swings, we tend to use an average for the street price. So something that's 40 one week and then 50 the next, and then back to 40 would have a street price of 45. Our goal is to just identify what a reader would pay on a normal basis without the sort of price manipulation that you might see in making the list price or the full price seem like more than it is.

[Kyra Blackwell]

And earlier you said that there are three main reasons why it's so hard to find a good deal. What's the second reason? It's so hard to discern a true bargain from a fake one.

[Nathan Burrow]

So this one is another acronym largely on the manufacturers and it's called MAP pricing, which stands for minimum advertised price. So in order for a retailer to carry a manufacturer's product, they will often broker an agreement where the retailer cannot openly advertise a price that is lower than a price that is predetermined by the manufacturer. Retailers have ways to get around that. So you'll see things like on page coupons when you go to a product listing or verbiage that indicates that the sale price will reflect only when you add something to cart. What that creates is a situation where it actually makes it harder for people that are shopping online to identify something that's on sale readily. And some retailers might want to advertise and give you a better price, but they can't. And so in a sense it's a little anti competitive because it disincentivizes them in terms of offering a price so good it'll set the market and get you as a shopper through the door because you have to be there on site already to see it. And so if you can't see it before you're there, there's really no reason for them to try to push to provide this rock bottom price. This makes determining the price, the everyday price of a product, difficult and sometimes impossible. From a shopping search. So customers don't have ready access to information about pricing when they're going around shopping on the Internet casually.

[Rosie Guerin]

So they cannot openly present a price that's lower than a certain price point. So how do they find what the lowest is that a manufacturer or retailer is willing to present?

[Nathan Burrow]

A lot of retailers out there will track other retailers pricing and so there's a lot of. Amazon is probably the best example of a company that has really algorithmically tracked the pricing of other major retailers out there, immediately matches that pricing and as a result is trying to make itself the only game in town. They will match a Walmart price if Walmart drops price to a certain point. They will match a Best Buy price if Best Buy drops its price to a certain point. And so in that sense retailers track one another which sets the market, but it does not drop below that map pricing unless they decide to take one of those extraordinary measures and have that on page coupon or have the price that reflects in cart.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Nathan, where do you see this kind of thing in its most nefarious form? Like how can you as a non deals editor spot these?

[Nathan Burrow]

One of the things that you have to look out for is definitely that verbiage that exists on a product listing page. And so while it might take a little bit of additional effort, it's worth clicking through on the retailer of your choice to see if the product listing has that coupon verbiage or if there's verbiage on that product listing page that says, you know, see pricing cart or deal price reflexing cart. And then you can go ahead and take the additional steps to ensure that that price is what you hoped it would be.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Okay, so you really have to do your due diligence. Nathan, what's the third thing you really want to look out for?

[Nathan Burrow]

Unfortunately, things that are cheap, like, you know, blowout TVs and, you know, clearance bin items and stuff like that. Things that are cheap during Black Friday might actually be cheap, as in cheaply made during Black Friday if you want a tv. It's a stereotype. But every year we see the big discounts on those cheapo models. Sometimes they're brand names that you've never even heard of, and retailers will often show them side by side with brand name models that are better. And for the uninitiated, they tend to look the same. There are even models within the same line of television where some models are from a given brand are good, and some models are specifically released around the holiday season or are released to be a model that can potentially be discounted to an incredibly low price, but they're of lower quality. And that's something that you have to bear in mind and be cautious of when you're shopping.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

So given that as a shopper you might be seeing a page that has a photo of one model, but you might be actually buying something else, it's really important to do your homework and look for the features you want. Don't just trust the photo right 100%.

[Nathan Burrow]

Especially if you're looking at things like sales periodicals which are omnipresent during the season. We recommend that you click through, that you actually read reviews, that you look at specific model numbers and features to identify the TV model or the model of any other electronic that works this way so that you're able to make sure that you get a quality item.

[Rosie Guerin]

Can you explain what a sales periodical is?

[Nathan Burrow]

Yeah, absolutely. So for years and years there were Retailers like Target and even a Walgreens or a Costco would have like a physical booklet and many, some of them still do. That shows you the products that will be on sale. It's generally broken out by category and it was sort of a pre Internet way to get people into brick and mortar stores. Now those periodicals, they're released in advance of an event like Black Friday. Sometimes those advertisements are meant to get you there in the hopes that you'll stay there.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

I kind of always thought that those sales periodicals were just meant to go directly into the recycling bin and not into my home.

[Rosie Guerin]

That's what they do at my house.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Yeah, or for the fire.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

But you might find some good deals in there. So worth a look. All right, we're going to take a quick break and when we come back, we're going to talk with Nathan all about the types of products you're likely to find most heavily discounted today on Black Friday and throughout the weekend, as well as some of the products you should probably avoid. You're listening to the Wirecutter Show. New episodes drop every Wednesday wherever you listen to podcasts. We'll be right back.

[Michael]

The new Showtime original series the Agency is now streaming on Paramount. The 10 episode spy thriller features a stellar cast including Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Jody Turner Smith and Richard Gere. The Agency follows Martian, a covert CIA agent whose career, real identity and mission are pitted against his heart, hurling him into a deadly game of international intrigue and espionage. New episodes of the Agency are now streaming on the Paramount with Showt. Visit paramountplus.com to get started.

[Rosie Guerin]

I gave my brother a New York Times subscription.

[Nathan Burrow]

She sent me a year long subscription so I have access to all the games.

[Rosie Guerin]

We'll do Wordo mini spelling bee.

[Nathan Burrow]

It has given us a personal connection.

[Rosie Guerin]

We exchange articles and so having read the same article, we can discuss it.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

The coverage, the options.

[Nathan Burrow]

It's not just news.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Such a diversified disc. I was really excited to give him a New York Times cooking subscription so that we could share recipes and we even just shared a recipe the other day.

[Nathan Burrow]

The New York Times contributes to our quality time together. You have all of that information at your fingertips.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

It enriches our relationship, broadening our horizons.

[Nathan Burrow]

It was such a cool and thoughtful gift.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

We're reading the same stuff, we're making the same food.

[Nathan Burrow]

We're on the same page.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Connect even more with someone you care about. Learn more about giving a New York Times subscription as a [e-mail] gift get.

[Rosie Guerin]

A special rate if you act before December 6th.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Welcome back to the Wirecutter show. In today's episode, we're breaking down Black Friday with Wirecutter senior deals editor Nathan Burrow. Nathan, before the break, you said your team post deals in every category. Wirecutter covers over 40 categories. Of these, which are the ones that are most likely to have the best deals?

[Nathan Burrow]

Well, the good news is you'll find pretty good deals on almost every product category. But historically, we've found particularly good deals in two categories. One would be small kitchen appliances, and the other is electronics, like TVs, laptops, et cetera.

[Rosie Guerin]

Why is that?

[Nathan Burrow]

To a degree, there is an element of unloading merchandise, especially with the electronics product category. Many electronics, like tablets, laptops, headphones, they get refreshed pretty regularly on a yearly basis. So clearing old stock can become important for retailers, and they're able to discount those items more substantially as they age. That's slightly less the case with small kitchen appliances, but the margins on kitchen appliances are such that I think they can really afford to discount them by quite a bit during a Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Nathan, I am a renter, so I'm not really looking to buy appliances right now. What else is good to buy on Black Friday?

[Nathan Burrow]

Black Friday is unexpectedly a great time to get deals on regular stuff, those everyday essentials. It might be strange to see an amazing deal on, you know, toys for your dog alongside deals on a MacBook, but it does happen.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

I love Black Friday for the regular stuff. I actually one year bought, I don't know, something like 240 pounds of kitty litter because it was six 40 pound bags of kitty litter and it was $7 off each. And I was like, I'm going to snap these up. So yes, it's a great time to buy things like, you know, just batteries, kitty litter, you know, the normal stuff. Are there any categories specifically to avoid? Like categories that just never have a good deal.

[Nathan Burrow]

So if you're somebody who is always looking for the latest and greatest tech, Black Friday might not be great for you in that Respect. Laptops with M4 chips, the newest iPhones, stuff like that, they may see small introductory discounts, but most of the time they don't see discounts that we're going to see later as we get farther away from those release dates. The other product categories that don't see discounts on Black Friday itself are from brands or retailers that do not participate in the event. And those do exist. They are usually outdoor retailers, we found. So REI does not have Black Friday sales. Patagonia also does not participate in Black Friday, but they also have annual events of their own, like REI's anniversary sale that will allow you to get the best deals of the year on their stuff.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

So, Nathan, another part of doing your homework as someone who's shopping for a deal is to understand the model that you're looking for, the model number specifically, and to try to find that model when you're doing your shopping. Right?

[Nathan Burrow]

Yes. I was just doing this yesterday, in fact, with one of our waffle maker picks. Basically what I do and what I would recommend that shoppers do is I, I match the exact model number from the review that you're looking at or from the ad that you're looking at against the model number that you see at the product listing. And that's a way to guarantee that you're getting exactly what you wanted. And as a result, you're getting the features that you wanted and you're getting the quality of product that you wanted because you've matched up those model numbers to ensure that it's the exact same thing.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

I've heard that browser extensions can help you find a better deal. Can you tell us about browser extensions? What are they? Do they work? And if so, how and how?

[Nathan Burrow]

Well, so browser extensions are to the right of your search bar, there's a little icon as you travel around the Internet, it basically registers what you're looking at. It's like an app that accompanies your browsing online. You may have seen these coupon based extensions and the biggest ones are Honey and Capital One, more or less. The way those work is when you take an item to cart, they will provide either internally sourced or crowdsourced suggestions for coupon codes you can use at checkout that have worked previously. Those extensions will work and we use them to identify potential coupon codes that we can surface for our readers. They're free, but just be aware that nothing is really free on the Internet. Really what they're doing is they're tracking your browsing information as many extensions do. The other thing that these extensions do is when you utilize them and when you click on them in order to get the additional tracking information or in order to get the coupon, they will ultimately collect the affiliate revenue associated with you purchasing that product. So they get a little percentage of what you spent on the product that you ultimately purchased if you used the extensions.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

We're going to take a quick break. And on the other side, the number one thing to avoid when you're looking to score deals and savings on Black Friday and throughout the weekend. You're listening to the Wire Cutter Show. We'll be right back.

[Michael]

The new Showtime original series, the Agency is now streaming on Paramount. The 10 episode spy thriller features a stellar cast including Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Jody Turner Smith and Richard Gere. The Agency follows Martian, a covert CIA agent whose career, real identity and mission are pitted against his heart, hurling him into a deadly game of international intrigue and espionage. New episodes of the Agency are now streaming on the Paramount with showtime plan. Visit paramountplus.com to get started.

[Robert Vinlo]

Hey, I'm Robert Vinlo and I'm from New York Times Games, and I'm here talking to people about wordle and the wordle Archive. You all play wordle?

[Nathan Burrow]

Yeah.

[Robert Vinlo]

I have something exciting to show you. It's the wordle Archive.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Oh, and you can miss it?

[Robert Vinlo]

I can go back 100%.

[Nathan Burrow]

Oh, that's sick.

[Robert Vinlo]

So now you can play every wordle that has ever existed. There's like a thousand puzzles.

[Nathan Burrow]

Oh, my God, I love it.

[Robert Vinlo]

Amazing. New York Times game subscribers can now access the entire Wordle archive. Find out more at nytimes.com games.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Welcome back to the Wire Cutter Show. Our guest today is Wirecutter's senior deals editor, Nathan Burrow. We've spent this episode discussing all the different ways to find deals on your own, not just today and through the weekend, but throughout the year. Nathan, if there was one thing you would caution folks to avoid this weekend, what would that be?

[Nathan Burrow]

Be careful of getting stuck in the sort of Google shopping cul de sac. People think that they're doing comparison shopping when they enter something into a Google search. But in truth, it's not as broad a selection of options as they think it is. They have incentives to send you to retailers and provide you with information that may not serve you best. They'll show you the retailers they want you to see. They'll show you, as a result, the prices that they want you to see.

[Rosie Guerin]

So, Nathan, when you're speaking about the Google cul de sac you're talking about, you know, I want to buy a Le Creuset Dutch oven this Black Friday. I shouldn't just Google Le Creuset Dutch oven and assume that what I see at the top of that page or what I see at the first page of results is going to present me with places I can find the best deal on a Dutch oven.

[Nathan Burrow]

Exactly. Just like a brick and mortar retailer, Google. Now, they are incentivized to sort of put things where you can see them the most. And so it's something that I caution shoppers about. You know, they need to know that there's more than just what they'll see see from that initial page, we recommend doing some further digging.

[Kyra Blackwell]

All right, Nathan, before we wrap, we usually ask all our guests to tell us about the last thing they bought that they really loved. But since this isn't a typical episode, I want to go off script and ask if there's anything you're planning to buy today or this weekend with an epic Black Friday discount.

[Nathan Burrow]

So one of the things that I'm looking for this weekend is an awesome deal on a turntable. I am looking in particular at one of our picks from a company called Project. I had a turntable that served me well for many years, but I'm finally looking to upgrade.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Very cool.

[Rosie Guerin]

Nathan, thanks so much. Nathan Barrow is Wirecutter Senior Deals Editor. Thank you. Thank you. Get back to work. Just kidding. Have a great weekend. Hey, if you're new to the Wirecutter show, we'd love to have you join us every Wednesday wherever you like to listen to podcasts. Go ahead and follow us so you won't miss our new episodes. Our enormous thanks today to our colleagues at New York Times Audio and at the Daily. Special thanks to Paula Shuman, Larissa Anderson, Ben Calhoun, Paige Cowett, Sam Dullnick, Cliff Levy and Ben Fruman. You can check out Wirecutter's coverage of Black Friday [e-mail] Wirecutter and of course, you can find and follow the Wirecutter show on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or again, wherever you like to listen. New episodes drop every Wednesday. That's it for us. I'm Rosie Guerin.

[Kyra Blackwell]

I'm Kyra Blackwell.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

And I'm Christine Cyr Clissette.

[Rosie Guerin]

The Wirecutter show is executive produced by me, Rosie Guerin, and produced by Abigail Keel. Editing by Abigail Keel. Engineering support from Maddie Maziello and Nick Pittman. Today's episode was mixed by Dan Powell, original music by Marion Lozano, Alicia Baitup, Dan Powell and Diane Wong. And here's what's coming up next week on the Wirecutter Show. When you're thinking about these affordable gifts, you want to be thinking about, would.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

The person think this cost $25? Or does it seem like it would.

[Rosie Guerin]

Cost a lot more than $25 to get something this great? That is a good sign. Thank you for listening.

[Michael]

The new Showtime original series, the Agency is now streaming on Paramount. The 10 episode spy thriller features a stellar cast including Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Jodie Turner Smith and Richard Gere. The Agency follows Martian, a covert CIA agent whose career, real identity and mission are pitted against his heart, hurling him into a deadly game of international intrigue and espionage. New episodes of the Agency are now streaming on the Paramount with Showtime. Visit paramountplus.com to get started.