While Apple Store customers in the U.S. can look forward to gift cards on selected purchases on Black Friday, it seems European customers may be missing out. Apple last year offered its European customers discounted pricing rather than gift cards, but rumors – including from the usually reliable MacG – say that there will be neither cards nor discounts this year …
While Apple’s U.S. site shows the gift card offer, the European sites we’ve checked refer only to the donations Apple will make to Project (RED), with nothing about gift cards or discounts.
Don’t be too disappointed, however: the deals typically offered by Apple are usually less generous than those available elsewhere. US readers are advised to check out the Black Friday deals we’ve spotted so far, with more over at 9to5Toys. In the UK, Amazon is going to be the place to look.
Update: Confirmed
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Wow.. even Canada is excluded.. which is odd given every other U.S. retailer doing business in Canada (BestBuy, Wal-mart, Target, Costco, Staples, Microsoft Store, Home Depot, Lowes etc) all have Black Friday sales in Canada.
Black Friday is just an American thing. So of course we (in EU) don’t celebrate that as a “thing”. Only recently do SOME international online stores offer it, otherwise no.
But its a typical American thing to think that the rest of the world also celebrate the same kind of days…….and when it dosen’t happen, then people are like “???????”.
Another peculiar thing, in America, to be so politically correct, you don’t run around and say “Merry Christmas”, you would say “Happy Holidays” so as not to offend some people that don’t celebrate christmas. I mean really? Just say Merry Christmas and let people be offended. Its their choice to feel that offence and if they do indeed feel it, then it says more about them than about the person just wishing a good day/night in celebration.
The odd part is offering discounts in Europe last year but not this
Yeah, that is odd indeed. Still customs change over the years. Just recently we had halloween introduced, so you’d never know if Black Friday would come sometime.
I’d say Black Friday is already prevalent outside of the US, even if some places are using different names for it. An Australian specific deals site is getting flooded with deal offerings for the occasion, many of which aren’t US based sellers.
Realistically the day really appears to be a shopping event more than anything else. It may originally have some ties to Thanks Giving, but even the US coverage is largely focused on the shopping. Being at a time coming into Christmas, it’s only natural that retailers across the globe would want to jump on that day as a way to drive Christmas sales.
It’s odd that Apple chose not to participate this year. Perhaps last year they noticed that the expectation of the day cannibalised sales for the months of October and November a bit? I know I was suggesting some people looking to buy a laptop in November to wait a couple of more weeks and see whether Apple would offer any discounts in the Australian store.