Passing Up Black Friday Sales Could Lead to Steeper Discounts Later

Black Friday deals could prove to be a scam for the consumer.

'Which?' is a consumer group that investigated the big annual sale. It found many of the items that are discounted over Black Friday weekend can be bought for the same price or cheaper at other times of the year.

Which? studied last year's Black Friday sales and a whopping 60% of them were the same cost or less either before or after the event. Almost half of the deals were the same or a lower price in December immediately after Black Friday.

"Black Friday has lost its significance," said Steven J. Barr, consumer markets leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Retailers have conditioned the consumer to believe everything's on sale every day, which means the deals on Black Friday are not significantly different from any other time."

According to consumer markets research from PwC, shoppers treat the holiday shopping season as more of a marathon now -- taking advantage of sales throughout, rather than focusing their attention on days like Black Friday or Cyber Monday. This benefits the retailers because spreading out the discounts and promotions keeps people coming in.

"Consequently, the decline of Black Friday is hardly news at all. Especially from its glory days heralding the start of the in-store holiday shopping season," a PwC report read.

Amazon for example, generated more money during its Prime Day this summer than it has during Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

In all, Americans are expected to spend about $680 billion this holiday season, marking a 3.6 percent to 4 percent increase from last year's $655.8 billion, according to estimates by the National Retail Federation.