Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day and traditionally the start of the Christmas shopping season. What used to be a few hours on Friday morning for early birds has grown into a huge extravaganza for eager shoppers, even creeping into Thanksgiving Day.
As Black Friday continues to grow and evolve into extended sales, many shoppers are seeking to find the best deals on consumer products at the right time. This year Black Friday falls on Nov. 29.
What’s expected for 2013?
BestBlackFriday.com, a website that reports on Black Friday deals, released their 2013 Black Friday predictions on Oct. 24.
Technology products are usually front and center every Black Friday. Most of these coveted items are deeply discounted from the normally expensive products. It appears 2013 is no different. Perennial favorites such as smartphones, video games, computers and tablets, television, cameras and other electronic gadget goodies, are listed in BestBlackFriday’s report.
Other anticipated sales items range from home improvement items to toys, notes BlackFriday.com, a website that has listed sales according to store. Shoppers will find deals on fashion apparel, and even dishwashers, according to multiple sales leaks.
Many of these sales are offered at both traditional brick and mortar stores and online shops. For more information, check out the Brad’s Black Friday website.
On Line Sales
Those shoppers not eager to wake up before dawn and fight traffic and long lines at the retailer can instead turn to the comforts of online shopping from home. Retailers expected to offer great deals include Newegg.com, Walmart, Target and Amazon (who has kicked off its Black Friday sales early), to name a few. DealsofAmerica.com can provide you with the latest on online deals.
Other predictions
As noted above, Black Friday is not just a few hours for early birds anymore. These days sales can be found on Thanksgiving Day, “Cyber Monday” and “Green Monday”. Additionally, many merchants are planning doorbusters Thanksgiving night and these will continue through the holiday weekend.
For the past few years, sales for each Black Friday date have broken the previous year’s record. While some media reports have suggested Black Friday 2013 may or may be not be an earth- shattering year for sales, The Black Friday’s prediction report indicated there are high hopes for Cyber Monday as ecommerce sales continue to boom. Green Monday is also expected to lure consumers to shop.
Watch out for bad deals and scams
While many great deals can be found on Black Friday and related popular shopping days, there are always going to be some businesses seeking to push fake deals and scams. What they do is label items as a Black Friday special, capitalizing on the branding associated with Black Friday.
In these instances, some retailers choose items and try and sell it for the regular price, and in some cases, even slightly higher. It is really important to know your prices so you can easily identify legitimate Black Friday sales and filter out the non-deals. There are many signs you can look for in order to sort out the real deals from the scams and efforts to unload inventory.
Fox Business offers a list of 13 things not to buy on Black Friday. While these are not scams, Black Friday and surrounding days aren’t the best time to buy certain items, sale or not.
Ultimately, if you want to save money on Black Friday and related sale days, do your homework beforehand. The Web is a great resource to do sales searches and price comparisons.
Related reading:
How to Find Black Friday Ads before they are Officially Released, by Olivia Emisar
How to Spot Fake Black Friday Deals, by Leigh Goessl