Ceiling fan and Black Friday: should you wait until late November to buy?

The fan is a summer product. In late November, sellers who overstocked in June seek to clear before inventory: those are the models showing minus 30 or minus 40%. They are not bad, but rarely the most wanted: large diameters, dated finishes, no remote, or models replaced by a new version. References that sell well have no reason to be dumped.

The other mechanism is the inflated crossed-out price: a reference price shown at 249 euros for a product never sold at that price, then discounted to 169 euros. On the big marketplaces it is still common despite regulation. The displayed discount is real against a number, but not against what the product ever cost.

Since 2022 in Europe, any price reduction announcement must indicate the lowest price charged during the 30 days before the promotion. A seller showing 249 euros crossed out must actually have sold at 249 euros at minimum in the 30 days before. It is not always respected, but it gives a simple test: check the product's price history on a comparison site, or have looked at it yourself a few weeks earlier.

The second test is consistency: a product sold at 169 euros on Black Friday by one merchant, and 165 euros in March by another, was not on promotion. The real discount is measured against the usual price, not the crossed-out one. On quality ceiling fans that real gap rarely exceeds 10 to 15%, 15 to 25 euros on a 160-euro unit.

Waiting until late November first means losing a month of use: a fan fitted in late October serves immediately in reverse mode and as a dimmable ceiling light. Over a month of heating, the winter-mode saving on the thermostat already represents part of the hoped-for discount. It then means buying in the rush: lead times extended by one to two weeks, saturated customer service, slower returns, and the temptation to take the model on promotion rather than the right one.

It finally means betting on a discount that may not exist for the model you want. If the right product is not on promotion on the day, you waited a month for nothing. The honest calculation is this: 15 to 25 euros of possible discount against a month of lost use and an order placed in the year's worst logistics conditions.

There is another policy: an identical price all year, no event discount, with facilities built in. The Boréal 107 is 157 euros in October, in November, in June. That price is paid in three interest-free instalments, and the 2+1 pack at 378 euros is available permanently, not one Friday a year. You buy when you need it, not when the commercial calendar decides.

That policy has a direct consequence for the buyer: there is nothing to wait for, and nothing to regret. The late-November price is today's price. What changes between the two dates is that the unit will have served a month longer, and the order will have been handled in 6 to 10 working days instead of three weeks.