Black Friday officially kicks off on November 24th this year, but if you plan to make that the only day you buy gifts this holiday season, you’re missing out. Several prominent retailers, including Best Buy and Target, have already started rolling out their holiday discounts online and in-store. Both retailers are offering price protection through most of the holiday shopping season as well, so if you buy early and the same item drops to a lower price, you can retroactively get that better deal.
Whether you take advantage of the slew of early Black Friday deals or hold off until the day after Thanksgiving, it’s important to know how every major retailer is handling the shopping event this year. If you plan to spend some cash, here are the schedules and expectations for Amazon, Walmart, and all the retailers that we know of.
Amazon has yet to announce a full Black Friday playbook, but it does have a landing page full of holiday deals, which may be updated and converted into its main hub for Black Friday deals — as well as Cyber Monday later on. There aren’t a ton of noteworthy early deals, at least in terms of tech, but Amazon is discounting several pairs of Beats headphones to their usual sale price. One example is the slick see-through Beats Studio Buds Plus, which are already on sale for $129.95 ($40 off).
Just be aware that Amazon does not offer price matching, so price “protection” for many Amazon shoppers means buying the item at the lower price point and returning the original — which is unfortunately pretty wasteful.
Black Friday savings have already kicked off to some degree at Best Buy. The retailer is currently offering various specials through its Black Friday deals event, with My Best Buy Plus and My Best Buy Total paid members getting access to steeper discounts on select products. The early deals opened up on October 30th, and Best Buy’s full Black Friday sale is slated to run from November 17th to November 25th. (Yes, a full eight days for a singular “Black Friday Sale.”) The retailer’s Cyber Monday promo is also penned for November 26th and 27th, meaning Best Buy is essentially running sales throughout the entire month of November.
Early Best Buy shoppers also get price protection, ensuring that if you purchase a qualifying item and it goes on to receive a bigger discount during the return or exchange period, you can request a refund for the difference. As with some of the Black Friday promos, you’ll want to make sure you’re signed in with your My Best Buy account while browsing to ensure you’re getting the lowest price.
Target recently announced a host of early Black Friday savings, which began on October 29th and are set to run through Thanksgiving weekend. Each Sunday in November, Target will showcase new deals at brick-and-mortar stores and online, and you can preview the week’s upcoming deals in Target’s weekly ad the Friday before they’re set to begin.
Target says it will be offering the best prices throughout the season; however, the retailer also has a holiday price-match policy in place if it happens to offer a better deal on an item through December 24th. Keep in mind that you may need to return to the store for a price match on an item purchased there or call Target’s guest services for online purchases.
Walmart plans to start rolling out its Black Friday deals in two waves, with the first one beginning online Wednesday, November 8th, at 3PM ET and in-store Friday, November 10th. The second wave begins online on Wednesday, November 22nd, at 3PM ET and in-store on Black Friday proper (November 24th). Some of the deals can already be previewed, with more to come. Paying Walmart Plus subscribers will also get three hours of early access to all of the retailer’s online Black Friday deals, beginning at noon ET on November 10th and again on November 22nd. Walmart is also offering 50 percent off an annual Walmart Plus membership through November 8th, bringing the cost of its premium service down to $49 for one year.
Previewed deals for November 8th include $50 off the 41mm Apple Watch Series 9 and $30 off the second-gen AirPods, which drops the latter to just $69.
There is no word yet on Black Friday details from GameStop. We expect to hear more soon regarding store hours on Black Friday and possibly Thanksgiving as well as some specifics regarding what kind of gaming deals it plans to offer throughout the holiday season.
Newegg is offering an initial wave of Black Friday deals through November 16th, with its second round running from the 17th through the 25th. Like other retailers, it offers price protection, so you can choose to buy early without much worry — and it’s noting price-protected items with a colorful badge near the product’s name. The price protection window only runs from November 1st through November 16th, however, leaving a bit of a gap before Black Friday. While that’s not nearly as wide a window as that being offered by Best Buy or Target, Newegg says it will automatically credit you the difference by December 5th, so you don’t have to keep an eye out for a lower price during that timeframe or flag it yourself.
Costco recently announced what it calls “Holiday Savings” deals for Thanksgiving Day online. It also announced a mix of in-warehouse and online deals running from November 24th through November 27th, with some select deals marked for an early start as soon as November 13th. While many deals are on bulk-size foodstuffs (as you’d expect from Costco), some notable upcoming tech deals include the Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro for $229.99 ($50 off), Sony’s noise-canceling WH-1000XM5 headphones for $329.99 ($70 off), and the last-gen Sonos Move speaker for $299.99 ($100 off), among other deals.