Black Friday is now a sweet deal for NRI students, Chennaiites

This year, it fell on November 23 with some offers extending all week.

Be it electronics, beauty products, household or lifestyle items and much more, discounts rise up to as much as 70 to 80 per cent. In India too, the phenomenon has come of age in the recent past with many malls and stores, as well as websites online, slashing prices on a variety of products.

The options in Chennai, however, were not as attractive… until now.

“NRI students and professionals studying or working abroad are our saviours. In fact, we have a WhatsApp group that connects us to Chennaiites studying in the US across many colleges. Every Black Friday season, we get amazing deals on PlayStations, the newest games, iPhones, and home assistants like Google Home and Amazon Echo. The students immediately post the details of the deals on the group and we tell them what we want. They take a small commission of sorts for bringing it to us, and we get these great items for half-price! It’s a great give-and-take policy,” said Karthik N, a software developer and gaming enthusiast in the city.

For instance, a coveted new-age product like the Bose Bluetooth-enabled wireless Ear Buds costs close to Rs 21,000 on Amazon India. With Black Friday deals, the price reduced to Rs 10,000 on American websites (more so for students, with university discounts). “I contacted a student who was in Boston University and told him I’ll give him Rs 12,000 if he could bring it for me. He made some money out of it, and I saved nearly Rs 10,000,” said Karthik.

Dileep M, who works at a start-up in Silicon Valley, said, “Last year, I made around Rs 30,000 from products I brought down for friends and other connections. It’s an easy way to make some quick bucks on the side and everyone’s a winner at the end of the day.”