The 11th edition of the Buen Fin shopping event started on Wednesday, offering shoppers special offers from more than 131,000 businesses until Tuesday, November 16. The event was originally inspired by the Black Friday shopping event in the United States.
Concanaco, a national business organization, estimated the event — whose name means “good weekend” —would generate up to 239 billion pesos (US $11.58 billion) in sales.
The federal tax authority SAT is also participating by conducting a lottery for consumers and sellers with prizes worth 500 million pesos (about $24 million).
Offers are available both online and in-store.
A full list of the online stores participating can be found here. To search for in-store participants, go to the Comprar en tienda link, and choose a department.
Additionally, consumer protection agency Profeco is offering a price comparison tool to sort through prices for electronic goods.
The first purchase of the event was made at a pharmacy in Mexico City, with the head of the Finance Ministry’s antitrust authority, Jesús Cantú Escalante, and the head of Concanaco, Héctor Tejada Shaar, in attendance.
Though not much of a consumer himself (he professes not to own a credit card), the president beat the drum for the event during Monday’s press conference, but issued a caution against buying luxury goods.
Forecasting that Buen Fin would be a big success this year, López Obrador urged shoppers to avoid superfluous purchases.
“… one must buy what is necessary, nothing superfluous, no cheap luxury goods; one must buy what is indispensable,” the president said before declaring that the economy is clearly in recovery.
