IT’S Black Friday this Friday.

But is it really?

Some shops started Black Friday prices last Wednesday, offering 10 days of discounts instead.

To be fair, there are some good reasons for this.

Not least because it helps to stop people from engaging in unseemly tussles in the street over discounted TVs.

But it does rather go against the entire concept of a one-day sale.

Where will it end?

If Black Friday is now a week – will it soon become a fortnight and then a month?

Will it be Black Friday every day?

It’s not just on the start of the Christmas shopping season where we see this either.

Supermarkets and high street shops now carrying a dazzling array of

2-for-1s, BOGOFs and special offers.

But is that offer for two small packets of pasta actually any cheaper than if you’d just bought the larger one in the first place?

It’s always worth checking but it feels like you might need a degree in maths – and all the time in the world – to be able to work out whether some of the more complicated offers are actually worth it.

When shopping for Christmas cards recently I raised an eyebrow at the high price for individual ones – until the penny dropped they were part of a 3-for-2 promotion.

I didn’t buy any on principle.

It’s time to accept that the idea of the sale has now become meaningless.

The reaction I’ve heard from most people about Black Friday is, ‘they just put the prices up beforehand’.

But if there’s a lack of trust around this whole concept then have we got anyone to blame but ourselves?

Let’s face it, we all love a bargain.

What is it? The thrill of the chase? The satisfaction that you have beaten the system?

Or has the rise of online shopping leaked over into an everyday expectation that you can always find a better price somewhere else?

I’d say very few people are prepared to pay full price for anything these days.

But it’s worth remembering that old saying: ‘you don’t get anything for nothing.’

It’s better for everyone if pricing is fair and honest.

That is down to shops – and the expectation of shoppers.