White Friday in the Gulf: what actually goes on sale

White Friday is the Gulf's name for the late-November sales week that the rest of the world calls Black Friday. It is a genuine event - the deepest electronics and appliance discounts of the year usually land in this window - but it is also the week with the most inflated "before" prices, so the skill is separating the two.

Watch the price before the week, not during it

The most reliable way to know a White Friday price is real is to have seen the price a few weeks earlier. Note what a product costs in October, and the November "was" figure has something to be checked against. A discount measured from a price that only appeared the day before the sale is not a discount.

Categories that genuinely move

Large electronics, home appliances and TVs see the steepest genuine cuts, because brands plan their year around this week. Fashion and beauty discount too, but those categories run end-of-season sales all year, so White Friday is rarely their lowest point. Follow the sale-event pages here for the stores confirmed to be taking part in your country, rather than trusting a countdown banner.