Black Friday deals: How to get the best bargains

41 per cent of shoppers plan to hit stores in 2016 so it's vitally important to get a bit of insider before the day

People walk past a shopfront on Oxford Street advertising 'Black Friday' discounts in London (Getty)

The turkey is brining, the silver is polished and the tablecloth is ironed for your fancy Thanksgiving dinner. So you know what that means: It’s time to make your game plan for shopping the Black Friday deals.

Here, we’ve answered key questions in an attempt to help you get smart about filling that shopping cart — whether yours is real or virtual.

When do the sales start?

While most big retailers will offer a special menu of deals that start on Thursday and Friday, plenty have already got the promotion action started. Target launched its 10-day blitz of category-specific deals on 22 November, and Amazon began offering fresh holiday deals as often as every five minutes back on 20 November. Wal-Mart launched thousands of discounts way back on 1 November.

That said, here’s a line-up of when many brick-and-mortar stores will kick off their official Black Friday bonanzas. To help you figure out whether and where you might want to open your wallet, we’ve linked to each retailers’ Black Friday Web headquarters.

Keep in mind that many of these chains will give you online access to their doorbuster deals before they start the in-store action. Wal-Mart, for example, will start its online sale at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time on Thanksgiving, while Sears will launch them at 8:00 p.m. Central Time on Wednesday.

People waits in line to go shopping at the to JCPenney store at the Newport Mall on 2014's Black Friday (Getty)

Thursday:

6 a.m. Kmart is the first to open its brick-and-mortar outposts.

3 p.m. JCPenney opens, making it one of few retailers to open its doors earlier this year than last year.

5 p.m. Best Buy and Toys R Us open.

6 p.m. More retail heavyweights kick off sales, including Target, Macy’s, Wal-Mart and Kohl’s.

10 p.m. to midnight. This is roughly the time when many malls and specialty chains will start welcoming shoppers. Before you head out, it’s probably best to check with your local shopping center and see which stores are scheduled to open when.

People crowd the first floor of Macy's department store as they open at midnight in 2012 (Getty)

Friday

Throughout the morning: Big chains that stayed closed for Thanksgiving — including H&M, T.J.Maxx and Staples — will join the deals fray.

What items are going to be hot?

Analysts and retailers are predicting it’s going to be a big year for toys: “Star Wars” merchandise, especially, is expected to sell briskly this year given all the hype around the new movie in the franchise that is set to open in December. But “Star Wars” isn’t the only hot toy property this season. Experts and forecasters predict items from Paw Patrol, Lego Dimensions and Skylanders will also be big sellers. And NRF survey data found that Barbie is the most in-demand character among parents shopping for little girls this year, perhaps good news for Mattel and its new Hello Barbie, which is equipped with voice-recognition software.

On the electronics front, HHGregg has said it expects it to be a “4K holiday,” with many shoppers choosing to upgrade their TVs to sets that boast this sharper picture resolution. (And you can expect many that opt for 4K will be getting it in a huge size.)

Based on buzz on social media, Adobe predicts we’ll also see strong sales of wearable devices such as Apple Watches and Fitbits; game consoles such as Playstation 4; and video games such as Minecraft and Halo 5.

Shoppers take advantage of Black Friday specials at Target in Dallas. (Stan Olszewski/AP)

Are the stores even going to be that crowded? I keep hearing Black Friday is dead.

There’s no doubt Black Friday isn’t quite the starting-gun shot to the holiday season that it used to be. The deals are spread out over days, and many shoppers are buying gifts online instead of trekking to the mall.

But 41 percent of shoppers plan to hit stores on Black Friday, according to a survey by the International Council of Shopping Centers, and 15 per cent plan to do so Thanksgiving Day. So while Black Friday’s importance has perhaps diminished, it has hardly evaporated.

That said, as we wrote last year, the sales aren’t quite the anarchy these days that you remember seeing on local news broadcasts in the early 2000s. With many big-box stores using wristbands or tickets to guarantee that the first people in line get the items that they came for, there’s little reason for shoppers to run and shove to get their goods. So if you go to the stores, expect chaos — but organized chaos.

I don’t really want to get off my couch amid my turkey coma. What’s the deal situation online?

As the lines between physical and online retailing blur and as shoppers bounce back and forth between the two, most retailers are trying to have more harmony between their online and in-store deals. Wal-Mart, for example, said 96 percent of its Black Friday deals this year will also be offered online. So if you’d rather shop from your living room, you’ll largely be getting access to the same deals as in-store shoppers.

Amazon, meanwhile, is offering online shoppers 30,000 so-called “lightning deals” for the extended Black Friday period. Members of its Prime program will get early access to those discounts. (Jeffrey P. Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.)

And even though retailers will be offering digital deals this week, you may want to check out their Cyber Monday line-ups before pouncing on a Black Friday sale. Many plan to offer fresh online deals on that day. Target, for example, will offer 75 virtual doorbusters, but will also try something new, offering 15 percent off purchases sitewide.

Washington Post

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