Image: bob-al Greene/mashable
Black Friday 2020 is unofficially underway. We have the ad scans, the early deals are already starting, and each day brings a new wave of discounts. Our full analysis is below — but if you clicked here to find stuff on sale, look no further:
Unlearn everything you *thought* you knew about Black Friday. The 2020 shopping season has a mind of its own.
Ever since it was announced that Prime Day would take up two days in mid-October instead of mid-July, retailers have pretty much said “screw it, all of November is Black Friday now.” As one could assume, sales at brick-and-mortar stores haven’t been at their best since the first lockdown struck. We don’t think the shift to online shopping is temporary, and at the least, is throwing a wrench in traditional plans for America’s biggest shopping holiday. TL;DR: There’s probably not much of a reason to leave your house at all on Cyber Weekend.
If many people are avoiding shopping in-store as much as possible, it only makes sense for retailers to go where the customers are: online. Given ahead-of-schedule Black Friday ad releases from almost every retailer and a ton of early Black Friday deals named in those ads, it’s clear that stores are distancing themselves from the usual rat race for one-day deals in stores. (Walmart randomly dropped one of its best TV deals and best AirPods deals of the season on Oct. 29. The calendar does not matter.)
We all know someone who has straight up left the Thanksgiving dinner table to get a head start on sales (maybe that person was you). Many people weren’t psyched about the newfound theme of Black Friday leaking into Thanksgiving. This year, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a store that’s open on Thanksgiving at all. Whether it’s due to COVID or answering calls to give employees a day with their families, Walmart, Target, Macy’s, and more won’t be open on Thursday, Nov. 26.
Google Shopping has conveniently launched new price history and comparison tools, just in time to guide scrambling online shoppers and provide quick side-by-sides of prices on the same item from different vendors.
True, early Black Friday deals are a thing every year. But the official date of Black Friday (Nov. 27 this year) is essentially meaningless. Black Friday deals that start on a certain time on a certain day will probably drop in the days or weeks prior, and your biggest worry will be how fast you can click “refresh” rather than getting trampled for a nice stand mixer. (Watch this space as deals drop.)
These retailers are all approaching Black Friday in different ways. Here’s what we know:
Black Friday 2020 dates and ad scans
To keep the momentum up, stores are releasing their Black Friday ad scans far ahead of time — a sign that the season is no longer limited to just a weekend. Walmart, Dell, Macy’s, Target, Best Buy, and Home Depot released their ads in mid or late-October, compared to the November release dates that we saw in 2019.
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Walmart: Possibly the most surprising store to announce closed doors on Thanksgiving this year, Walmart is shaking things up in another way. On top of releasing its 2020 ad nearly a month before it did in 2019, the store is substituting three Black Friday events for the long-established rumble for in-store-only deals. The whole thing is called Black Friday Deals for Days, and the separate events are spread out across November (the first one slated for Nov. 4). Check out Walmart’s Black Friday 2020 ad here.
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Best Buy: While Amazon had Prime Day on Oct. 13 and 14, Best Buy ran a two-day Black Friday shopping event. This was the first official “Black Friday” deals event announcement, as other retailers have been sharing deals under the guise of Prime Day and similar events. Best Buy also offered a flexible price match guarantee where if you bought something with a “Black Friday Price Guaranteed” label on Oct. 13 or 14 and the price drops lower before Nov. 28, you’ll get refunded for the difference. Check out Best Buy’s 2020 ad here.
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Amazon: Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday 2020 are more or less one giant entity this year. There were mere days in between the end of Prime Day (Oct. 14) and the beginning of Amazon’s Black Friday kickoff, which Tamebay (an Amazon seller news site) says started on Oct. 26. Amazon will still honor actual Black Friday and Cyber Monday on their true dates of Nov. 27 and Nov. 30. Historically, Amazon has been weird about releasing an official newspaper-style ad scan.
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Target: Starting holiday deals in October has been a huge trend this year. Target also rode the coattails of Prime Day by hosting its own “Deals Day” Oct. 13 and 14, and the low prices seem like they’ll be sticking around until Black Friday. Target’s doors will be closed on Thanksgiving, but we suspect they’ll be open Black Friday — for curbside pickup at the very least. The retailer has also made 20,000 more of its products available for pickup or delivery, giving customers more flexibility during the holiday season. Check out Target’s Black Friday 2020 ad here.
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Dell: Dell beat pretty much all brick-and-mortar stores to the punch with its Black Friday ad release on Oct. 15. Most of the deals are part of the Black Friday Sneak Peek and are supposedly already at Black Friday prices, but we’d check with the ad just in case. At any rate, Dell’s ad has confirmed that the computer destination will be dropping prices as early as the first week of November. Check out Dell’s Black Friday 2020 ad here.
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Macy’s: Macy’s joined the pack of retailers that won’t be open on Thanksgiving — a less-expected move since the brand won’t get to bask in the usual light of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which won’t have in-person attendance this year. Typically a store with diehard decor that you picture when thinking about holiday shopping, the department store looked to keep customers hyped by releasing its Black Friday 2020 ad weeks earlier than it did in 2019. Deals start in-store and online on Nov. 24. Check out Macy’s Black Friday 2020 ad here.
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Home Depot: While some retailers have toyed with the idea of ditching Black Friday, Home Depot actually bit the bullet. Instead of a weekend-long shopping event, the retailer will host two whole months of holiday deals online and in stores starting in November. Home Depot also announced that no stores will be open on Thanksgiving.
For a full list of stores closed on Thanksgiving, check out our partners at BestBlackFriday.com.
The most popular items for Black Friday 2020, according to ad scans
What’s not so different from other years is the list of items the ad focuses on: 4K TVs (especially smaller models under $100 and affordable mid-size QLEDs), Instant Pots, air fryers, KitchenAid mixers, and TOYS. You can probably expect to see a bigger spotlight on WFH gear like standing desks, webcams, and quick-buy cheap Chromebooks.
All eyes will also be on Amazon — but as stated earlier, Amazon doesn’t really do the classic ad scan release. However, we can make some pretty educated guesses as to what items will be big based on Black Friday last year and more importantly, Prime Day (which happened just a few weeks ago). Echo devices, Fire Tablets and Fire TVs, Kindles, and Instant Pots will are almost guaranteed to see big discounts. Unlike Prime Day, Amazon’s Black Friday deals are for all Prime and non-Prime customers.
You might have to alter your shopping traditions a bit
Don’t expect many GIFs of people being run over in front of automatic doors.
Waking up at the crack of dawn to rush the shopping center and eat McDonald’s at ungodly hours is a family or friend group tradition that many people hold dear. While some iteration of that may still be possible this year, the in-store edge just isn’t the same this year. In attempts to reduce lines and overcrowding to comply with social distancing regulations, we suspect that most retailers will inch away from deals that can exclusively be purchased in person. Curbside pickup might be big, though.
How ridiculous does planning an early-morning Zoom call to collab with friends during your scouring of Black Friday sales sound? Because we might be suggesting that. Prime Day’s frequent stockouts reaffirmed our inkling that you’ll be doing a lot of refreshing on Black Friday, especially for those items that everyone is fighting over like 4K and Fire TVs, Instant Pots, or AirPods. Have your comrades keep an eye out for the items you’re looking for — and have them scoop it up they come across a restock before you do.