The Truth about Black Friday Sales

Last Update: 10/1/2018

The truth about Black Friday? Black Friday has morphed into Black November, and retailers - both traditional and online, begin running their Black Friday deals on November 1st. That’s right - as soon as you finally hit the bed after a fright filled night of collecting candy from your neighbors, retailers are gearing up to relieve you of your holiday shopping budgets. With dilution of the term Black Friday, the best sales are saved for the day itself.

Be sure to look at our Black Friday Ad Scans and Deals Page

Questioning Black Friday

Still, many shoppers assume every Black Friday deal is awesome; but is the listed merchandise truly a hot deal?

• Should you wake up early and battle the throngs of consumers standing in line at your favorite store?
• Are these sales really limited time deals, or can better pricing be had at other times?

To answer these questions, we dug deep into last year’s Black Friday deals to see if the deals were really as good as advertised.

• For instance, was there a deal offered later in the year that beat Black Friday’s pricing?
• Is there a reason to give into the hype?

Recycling Deals

Many retailers “recycle” Black Friday ads and do not change deal pricing on some products from year to year. While this might make sense if their inventory levels are high, consumers have come to expect deeper discounts each year on a wider variety of products new and old.

In fact, the opposite is true -  a recent study found that 90% of stores had Black Friday “doorbuster” deals that existed the previous last year. The same study found retailers would often try to trick consumers on Black Friday with knockoff deals from no names, shady rebate offers, and misleading original prices. The upshot? Use a website like BuyVia to compare prices before shopping - a little homework can really pay off in the end.

Where did the Doorbuster come from?

The doorbuster is a limited time super cheap deal designed get shoppers into the store. They are often available early in the morning and sell out almost immediately. More organized stores hand out vouchers to those in line to prevent mass hysteria from occurring from when the doors open up.

Doorbusters have been around far longer Black Friday. These "loss leaders" first appeared in an ad in August 1917 for Killian's Department store, Cedar Rapids, Iowa as: "Wednesday's 8 o'clock doorbusters"

A bargain item was sold at a tiny fraction of its regular price. This brought in crowds long before the store had opened its doors. Other stores in Iowa continued this tradition throughout the 1920's.

Some Black Friday Deal examples from 2017:

We look back at last year to see what was in sale.  Why?  Because this year, we should see similar types of promotions.

Apple Black Friday Deals

Apple had these promotions:

• Up to $50 Apple Gift Card when you order iPhone
• Up to $100 Apple Gift Card when you buy selected iPad models
• $25 Apple Gift Card for Apple Watch purchase
• $150 Apple Gift Card for select Mac computers
• $25 Apple Gift Card for Apple TV purchase

Apple offered similar promotions the previous year, but at least increased the iPad gift card amount. The Apple deals at other stores including Best Buy, Target, etc where far superior to the Apple Store.

So - one would think the best strategy for Apple products is to ditch the Apple store in favor of major retailers? Maybe, but better deals showed up just 14 days after Black Friday - with deeper discounts and zero sales tax. And finally, Apple did not even offer a sale on CyberMonday.

Gap Black Friday Sales

Gap has a “50% off Everything” sale. The later had many other sales of the type Save up to 50% off plus an extra 40% off. These were better on the select sale items, but the 50% off was a lot better on general merchandise.

Black Friday Laptop Deals

Black Friday is a great time to buy a new laptop. Most of the deals were on lower end, budget notebooks. Here were the top items on sale then.

PC Laptops

Dell Home Doorbusters - 11/23/17 Thursday 11am ET

• Inspiron 15 3000 Notebook Celeron 4GB/500GB $199.99 ($299.99) Free Shipping

Dell Small Business Doorbusters - 11/23/17 Thursday 11am EST

• Inspiron 15 3000 Notebook Celeron 4GB/500GB 1 Year ProSupport $199.99 ($299.99)

Dell Home Doorbusters - 11/23/17 Thursday 6pm ET

• Inspiron 14 3000 Notebook Celeron 2GB/32GB Windows 10 $129.99 ($249.99) Free Shipping

Dell Home Doorbusters - 11/23/17 Thursday 9pm ET

• Inspiron 11 3000 2 in 1 Core M3 4GB/1TB Windows 10 $299.99 ($599.99) Free Shipping

Dell Home Doorbusters - 11/24/17 Friday 8am ET

• Inspiron 15 3000 Notebook Core i3 4GB/1TB $299.99 ($429.99) Free Shipping

Dell Small Business Doorbusters - 11/24/17 Friday 8am EST

• Inspiron 15 3000 Notebook Core i3 4GB/1TB 1 Year ProSupport $334.99 ($489.99)

Black Friday Video Game Deals

These deals can be of good value, if and only if you like the bundled games. The prices of these holiday bundles held steady, probably due to minimum advertised pricing restrictions. On the other hand, there are plenty of video games on sale, making this a great time to buy software.

Walmart:

• Playstation 4 PS4 1TB Slim Gaming System $199 ($300)

Gamestop:

• Best deal: PS4 1TB System $199 free shipping ($300) plus Free $50 Gamestop Gift Card!

Xbox One S

Microsoft Store:

• Xbox One S 500GB Console + Free Game and 1-Month Game Pass $189 Free shipping ($249)

Gamestop:

• Xbox One S 500GB System $189 free shipping ($280)
• Xbox 360 Original model Pre-owned Free After rebate. Thursday-Friday.

Black Friday HDTV Deals

TVs are always a bright spot for Black Friday. Some of the best deals can be had then.

Amazon

• Sold out: TCL 40-inch smart TV, only $249.99 free shipping ($290)
• Sold out: TCL 49-inch smart TV, only $349.99 free shipping ($480)
• Sold out: TCL 55-inch smart TV, only $379.99 free shipping ($600)

Best Buy Doorbuster

• In store only: Sharp - 50" Class (49.5" Diag.) - LED - 2160p - Smart - 4K Ultra HD TV Roku TV - LC-50LBU591U $179.99 ($500)
• In store only: Toshiba- 55" Class (54.6" Diag.) - LED - 2160p - Smart - 4K Ultra HD TV Chromecast - 55L711U18 $279.99 ($500)

Black Friday Smartphone Deals

Everyone wants a better phone, Black Friday is a great time to upgrade.

AT&T Wireless

• Get a Samsung Galaxy S8 for Free
• AT&T: Up to $300 in credits with select phone trade-in

Best Buy:

• Save $350 on Samsung Note 8, S8, S8+ with activation.
• Samsung S8 64GB Verizon $15.41/month for 24 months (Regular $30/month)
• Samsung S8+ 64GB Verizon $19.41/month for 24 months (Regular $34/month)

iPhone Deals

Target:

• In store: iPhone 8 and 8 Plus Free $250 Gift Card with qualified activation - AT&T, Sprint, Verizon

T-Mobile:

• Buy 1 Get 1 Free Phone

Black Friday is No Longer the Best Sale of the Year

As we have shown, similar or better deals can be had throughout the year. So what’s the point of Black Friday?

We at BuyVia still believe Black Friday can save you money - but you have to set your expectations. If you expect to find the lowest possible price of the year on your favorite items, you are in for a disappointment. But if you are looking for good deals on your holiday list, Black Friday is still a great way to save money.

If you are looking for the best possible price on specific items, do your research. Often web based retailers will trump their retail competition because they pass the decreased cost of overhead onto their consumers. For the best possible deals, sign up here to receive personal deal alerts from Buyvia.

Do you have a comment or a different experience with Black Friday?

One response to “The Truth about Black Friday Sales”

1. Elly says:

   July 21, 2016 at 8:54 PM

   This is both street smart and intelligent.

   Reply

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