Christine Cyr-Clessette

I kind of always thought that those sales periodicals were just meant to go directly into the recycling bin and not into my home. That's what they do at my house. Yeah. Or for the fire. 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.

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.

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 seven dollars 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?

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 disappears. actually is too good to be true.

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?

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 well?

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 Wirecutter Show. We'll be right back. Welcome back to The Wirecutter Show. Our guest today is Wirecutter's Senior Deals Editor, Nathan Burrow.

We 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?

I'm Cara Blackwell. And I'm Christine Cyr-Closet.

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

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

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?

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

From The New York Times, you're listening to The Wirecutter Show. I'm Christine Cyr-Clessette. I'm Kyra Blackwell.

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?

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?