Earlier than ever. Wal-Mart and Amazon among the many to offer Black Friday sales starting now.
Is it too early?
Black Friday arriving early, on a Saturday
Black Friday, the frenzied day of holiday season shopping which traditionally begins after Thanksgiving, will launch this year before trick-or-treaters have had a chance to gobble up much of their Halloween candy.
The start of the holiday shopping season begins Saturday, when Amazon (AMZN) and Walmart (WMT) will cut Halloween revelry short by kicking off holiday deals, moving up the usual shopping kickoff day by nearly a month.
They are among several retailers promoting Black Friday deals weeks before the actual event. While Amazon has typically started holiday deals at the beginning of November, this year will feature more products and more frequent deals, says spokeswoman Julie Law. Amazon will increase its deal of the day feature to include two daily deals from Nov. 1 until Dec. 22.
Amazon will also increase the frequency and number of products available as "lightning deals" from Nov. 1 until the official, post-Thanksgiving Black Friday weekend. Lightning deals are products that go on sale for a limited amount of time each day; closer to Black Friday, deals go up every 10 minutes, Law says.
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The deals will be for products in higher demand around the holidays, such as cookware, electronics and toys.
• Walmart will launch more than 20,000 "rollbacks" – reduced priced items – on Saturday, which is more than were available at this same time last year, says Steve Bratspies, executive vice president of general merchandise. Stores typically have about 10,000 products on rollback during the rest of the year. Walmart.com will also give an early nod to Cyber Monday with a 24-hour deal event on Monday.
Walmart is also testing online price matching in some markets this holiday season.
• Office Depot (ODP) and OfficeMax will also start holiday deals this weekend, with savings on laptops and touchscreen computers from Nov. 2-15. The stores will also have Cyber Monday deals every Monday in November, the company said Thursday.
• This is the first year Sears (SHLD) will offer Black Friday deals two weeks early during a friends and family sale Nov. 9. Some apparel, appliances, tools and footwear will be available at a steeper "Black Friday" discount on top of the 5% to 15% discount that's part of the friends and family event, the company says.
While Black Friday may have been seen as the official start to the holiday season in the past decade, it's now been relegated to more of a fun social occasion as retailers push earlier sales to win over customers, says Allison Paul, head of U.S. retail and distribution at consulting firm Deloitte.
As online and mobile shopping become both more accessible and convenient, the significance of Black Friday will continue to diminish, she says.
"For the investment you have to make in time and basic hardship, the value equation is not there for everybody," Paul says. "There's no getting around the fact that Black Friday and some of those other days — it's a madhouse."
Luis Torres and his daughter Stephanie, from Chicago, search for more deals after picking up a 50 inch television during the doorbuster sales at Kmart's Addison St. store on Thursday, Nov. 28, 2013 in Chicago, Ill.(Photo: John Konstantaras, AP Images for Kmart)
Deloitte's holiday shopping survey of about 5,000 consumers, out this week, found that just 9% plan to shop Black Friday and that most plan to shop in December or other days in November.
Paul also says retailers are probably "hedging their bets" against potentially bad weather in December by spreading bigger and better sales throughout the season. Last year, shoppers were likely deterred, and store sales suffered, by major storms in the Midwest and Northeast over two of the weekends leading up to Christmas, she says.
In other holiday shopping news, Kohl's followed Macy's lead and announced Thursday it will open two hours earlier on Thanksgiving, at 6 p.m.
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
Well, I'm aggravated. I placed an online order and then went back to the site the next day. They were doing a site wide 20% off sale. I spent $90.
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“You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise!” ― Maya Angelou
Alright, now I'm ticked off. SIX O'CLOCK on Thanksgiving is not Black FRIDAY.
It started today!
Black Friday arriving early, on a Saturday
Black Friday, the frenzied day of holiday season shopping which traditionally begins after Thanksgiving, will launch this year before trick-or-treaters have had a chance to gobble up much of their Halloween candy.
The start of the holiday shopping season begins Saturday, when Amazon (AMZN) and Walmart (WMT) will cut Halloween revelry short by kicking off holiday deals, moving up the usual shopping kickoff day by nearly a month.
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
Alright, now I'm ticked off. SIX O'CLOCK on Thanksgiving is not Black FRIDAY.
Just friggin' abolish Thanksgiving. I hate it.
flan
Why on Earth would you hate Thanksgiving?
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
Alright, now I'm ticked off. SIX O'CLOCK on Thanksgiving is not Black FRIDAY.
Just friggin' abolish Thanksgiving. I hate it.
flan
Why on Earth would you hate Thanksgiving?
I LOVE Thanksgiving. I'm ticked at the stupid merchants who worship the Almighty Dollar and make their employees work on THANKSGIVING.
flan
Ah! Gotch ya!
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
I wonder if the regular hourly employees get Holiday pay? If so, that can be a nice chunk of change.
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
Typically seasonal and regular employees get holiday pay. But time and a half is only for the hours worked ON the holiday. So if you work on Thursday, you get time and a half. BUT, if you don't work the holiday, you get 8 hours of pay because it's a day you normally would have worked.
Long story short ... Working on the holiday means less pay not more for the employee. Shifts on time and ahead days tend to be short, not 8 hours if the company can at all help it.
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Out of all the lies I have told, "just kidding" is my favorite !
We usually go out on Friday afternoon. Most of the deals are still there. The ones people stand in line all night and fight over are usually the items that the store had only 5 or 10 of anyways. The only way people get those is if they stand in line for 12 hours or so. No thanks. A $299 flat screen isn't that important to me.
If you went during a sale and the item was out of stock you could get one on a rain check for the sale price.
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
Not for black Friday type of things. Especially when it's just 5 per store. It's like the old bait and switch. We usually take a drive on Thanksgiving just to look at all the people standing outside.
I don't leave the house on Thanksgiving or the Friday after. Generally the whole weekend.
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
Sometimes I go and sometimes not. Depends on what they have. Almost all the time they have Barbies and games for kids on sale. That's when I stock up on stuff for our yearly donation to Toys for Tots. No, I don't feel bad about it. We budget a certain amount of money every year for it. The more I can get for that money the more we can give.
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“You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise!” ― Maya Angelou
A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
If you went during a sale and the item was out of stock you could get one on a rain check for the sale price.
Black Friday deals NEVER have rain checks. Regular sale items throughout the year, yes. For Black Friday, all rules go out the window.
What people fail to understand is that $200 Samsung flat screen TV isn't the regular one the stores carry all year round. It's a special one made by Samsung (or whomever ) without all the bells and whistles, made especially cheaply, just for the day. One year, we had a guest complain that the TV he waited for all night long had a single pixel burnt out. He was indignant. I told him that was pretty typical. These TV's aren't being sold at a loss because the company feels generous! They are cheap versions that are still making money for the store.
And...you will be able to find deals just as good in the weeks before and the weeks after BF. You might have to look a little harder, but they are there. Several items we would carry all season long at that same BF price.
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Out of all the lies I have told, "just kidding" is my favorite !
I've had people comment that I shouldn't buy cheap toys for Toys for Tots. They're not cheap. They're on sale. Which enables me to buy more to donate.
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“You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise!” ― Maya Angelou
The one time I tried to get the Black Friday deals I realized it was just to get people in the door.
I got better deals after lunch than first thing in the morning.
I even took one gift back because I found it cheaper at another store.
It does pay to look before buying.
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
I've had people comment that I shouldn't buy cheap toys for Toys for Tots. They're not cheap. They're on sale. Which enables me to buy more to donate.
Those people don't know what they are talking about.
On sale is not cheap.
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
I don't go out on Black Friday. I hate crowds. I avoid stores as much as possible during the last 2 months of the year and the first couple weeks of the new year.
Typically seasonal and regular employees get holiday pay. But time and a half is only for the hours worked ON the holiday. So if you work on Thursday, you get time and a half. BUT, if you don't work the holiday, you get 8 hours of pay because it's a day you normally would have worked.
Long story short ... Working on the holiday means less pay not more for the employee. Shifts on time and ahead days tend to be short, not 8 hours if the company can at all help it.
When I worked retail we got holiday pay on Black Friday. Plus they counted Thanksgiving as one of our two days off that week, so we had holiday pay and a ton of over time paid out at the holiday pay rate. Plus all the commission we made that week.. it was crazy! It was the best paying week of the year by a long shot.
I have shopped on black Friday, but I'm kind of over it. I don't buy 'big' things so it's not really an issue for me. I WILL NOT shop on Thanksgiving, no matter how good the deal is. I do like going during that weekend though. I think Christmas shopping that weekend is really festive and gets me into the holiday spirit.
Most big companies only give holiday pay for the days that are legal holidays. Black Friday isn't one of them. I hope you know how really, really lucky you were to get the extra pay for working that day. I worked for 2 of the bigger specialty retailers (mall type stores) and neither gave it for that day and no one else I knew in the mall got it either. I also worked for Target and we didn't get it for BF either.
You were SUPER lucky!
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Out of all the lies I have told, "just kidding" is my favorite !
Yeah, I really think they've pushed things up way too far. Let people enjoy one holiday before they do the next. I hate that there's already Christmas candy and stuff up. I'm like NAOW, we never waited in line for big ticket items either.
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“You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise!” ― Maya Angelou
Yeah, I really think they've pushed things up way too far. Let people enjoy one holiday before they do the next. I hate that there's already Christmas candy and stuff up. I'm like NAOW, we never waited in line for big ticket items either.
I never buy the big ticket items on Black Friday. Black Friday is the last day I shop. I'm finishing up.
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LawyerLady
I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.
Company policy was, whatever time the store opened, management had to be there 4 hours prior to ensure safety for those in line. And by management, I mean the store manager, 2 other people on the management team, and approx 10 other people who may or may not be volunteers. So if the store opened at 8pm, they had to report at 4pm.
Ruined the day for a lot of people. You have to remember that they typically also worked the overnight shift on Wednesday into Thursday to prepare the store for the big sale. So it doesn't leave much time for family.
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Out of all the lies I have told, "just kidding" is my favorite !
I have found that it's a really good day to buy toys and games. I usually get Barbie's on sale and all the normal kids games. Those are the things we donate. What kid doesn't want a Barbie or a game of Chutes and Ladders. Later I will buy basketballs. We donate them too.
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“You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise!” ― Maya Angelou
Same here. Plus I gave up years ago having those long, lovely, perfectly-painted nails. Mine just aren't hard enough and I don't have the time/money to have them done.
So I keep them neat and buffed, with whitestick under them... works for me (while I paint my toes).
Same here. Plus I gave up years ago having those long, lovely, perfectly-painted nails. Mine just aren't hard enough and I don't have the time/money to have them done.
So I keep them neat and buffed, with whitestick under them... works for me (while I paint my toes).
What is whitestick?
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The Principle of Least Interest: He who cares least about a relationship, controls it.