This Retailer Raised Prices on Black Friday -- And Saw a Lift in Sales (Say What?!) The maker of the irreverent Cards Against Humanity party game tacked $5 onto retail prices on a day when consumers expected to get ultra-deep discounts.
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If you didn't already know, journalists are saps for snark. Alas, we just can't help ourselves: Party-game retailer Cards Against Humanity raised its prices on Black Friday just for the heck of it. Yes, you read that correctly – raised them. And it sold more games than last year.
Luring shoppers with what it called a "once-in-a-lifetime" sale, Cards Against Humanity charged $30 for the game, which usually costs $25. And in lieu of a "buy" button, the retailer mocked the day of shopping excess with a "Consume!" button, complete with facetious exclamation mark.
"This is a difficult time of year for us because we spend almost no money on marketing, and it's easy for us to get lost in the noise and money of the holiday season," wrote Max Temkin, the creator of the game on his blog.
Temkin even updated the retailer's frequently asked questions section with its trademark sarcasm. Question: "I am mad that you are making a joke about Black Friday." Answer: "You're probably a bad person."
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Sales of the game on Black Friday rose slightly over the previous year, Temkin wrote, thanks in large part to the ensuing media blitz (we're saps for snark, remember?). And perhaps more entertaining is that the day after Black Friday, the Cards Against Humanity game received a "nice lift" in sales, Temkin says.
The game itself is pretty simple. One person has a card with a question that the other players try to answer using cards they have in their own hand. (The questions and answers are notoriously inappropriate and outlandish.) The person who asked the question picks the funniest answer and that person gets a point.
Cards Against Humanity was not alone in poking fun of the insanity that is shopping on Black Friday. Clothes and outdoor gear-market Patagonia threw parties on Black Friday to teach consumers how to fix their clothing, in theory to reduce the need to purchase new merchandise.
While Cards Against Humanity -- and much of the media -- was thoroughly entertained by this gimmick, Amazon's staff was none too pleased. "Apparently monkeying with pricing on the biggest sales day of the year isn't as funny to Amazon as it is to us," Temkin wrote.
Related: Huh? One Retailer Says Don't Buy Our Stuff on Black Friday
