I remember a time when all the stores tired like hell to keep their ads for the annual Black Friday sale a secret and they’d get so pissed when someone leaked the ad early. These days they make Black Friday a month-long sale:
That’s just from emails I received in the past week or so.
Additionally, there’s a growing trend of sending out the actual Black Friday ads ahead of time. The folks at DealNews.com have a schedule of expected release dates for Black Friday ads. As you can see below, Kohl’s, Dell, Office Depot, and Petco have already sent out their BF ads.
Why, it’s almost like they realized that people wanted this info ahead of time and releasing it early was a good way to stir up interest. Some companies these days are having “Black Friday” sales during other months to try and drum up more sales.
I don’t really have a point to make with this entry, I just thought it was interesting in how things have changed. Once a closely guarded secret and now it’s promoted heavily ahead of time. Partially because it’s become common knowledge that the best deals are to be had on Black Friday. Except it turns out that’s probably not the case at all. Or at least, not on everything you might be shopping for
There are things that are a good deal and things you should probably avoid. The folks at HuffPost had an article last year on what to look for and what to avoid.
Spending on Black Friday had a meteoric rise from $26 billion in 2005 to $67.6 billion as of 2015.
However, competition among retailers and an oversaturation of deals mean ads are leaked increasingly earlier, discounts have become less competitive, and Black Friday has become more like Black November. In fact, the best deals aren’t actually on Black Friday. With the addition of Cyber Monday, Super Saturday and pretty much every other day of the year you can find deep discounts, Black Friday deals aren’t as compelling as they once were.
Black Friday Deals Are Mostly Dead. Here’s What You Should ― And Shouldn’t ― Buy. HuffPost.com
The advice in that article is still pretty solid. Or, you can do like I do, and just avoid it altogether by eating leftover Thanksgiving turkey and playing video games all day on Friday. It probably helps that in the past couple of years I’ve not had the extra money to do any shopping with on Black Friday in the first place, but even if I did I’d probably not bother going out and fighting the crowds. What about you guys? Do you still make the trip out to find the best deals?