So now is the time (in case you haven’t noticed) where all the best deals for the shopping season are going to hit us fast and furious.
The downside is that you really want to get it together so you don’t miss anything and stuff will go fast but the upside is that there is absolutely no reason to go out into the dark and cold on Thanksgiving to fight the crowds. You can get almost every item you might want online from the comfort of your home.
So here are a few tips that I have for successful online and in store shopping this season. These are just predictions based off of 5 years of blogging about Black Friday deals. I can’t say for 100% certainty what will happen until the deals are actually live but just to give you some tips:
Q. Can I get the deals from the Black Friday ads online too or just in stores?
A. Online!! The vast majority of things you will want should be available online. There are very few exceptions that I see— for Target for example last year the only things they didn’t have were small clothing items and Crayola art kits and that was about it. Everything else is online.
By shopping online you will get the items sooner AND you can often use promo codes to get an even better deal. Let’s take Kohl’s for example. I posted that Black Friday ad with tons of highlights yesterday. So you should have been able to get nearly everything from that ad already- you needn’t wait until Thursday to shop. There was also a coupon code for an extra 15% off- so the prices were actually better online than in store.
Q. How do I know when the deals are available?
For the most part I post A TON. The Black Friday ads I will post as soon as they go live. Often we see Amazon or another retailer price match so I will always post any additional deals as quickly as I can.
Most of the deals will be available tonight (Tuesday) and almost everything else will be Wednesday night- usually pretty late. Anywhere from 9pm PST to midnight PST.
Here are a few predictions but again none of this is set in stone:
Wednesday from 9pm PST to Midnight PST:
- Target
- Sam’s Club
- Lowe’s
- Best Buy
- Walmart
This year we may see the deals earlier- I can’t wait to see what happens 🙂 It is so nice to have things spread out a bit so I have my fingers crossed.
Typically Toys R Us goes live about an hour before the stores open. So roughly 5pm on Thanksgiving Day.
These come fast and furious and if you are a West Coaster you are super lucky! You should be able to get most of your shopping done from 9pm until midnight-ish. Those of you on the East Coast are going to have a super late night :). You can always wake up very early in the morning but just note the ipads, gaming consoles and such will probably be sold out.
Patience is needed and sometimes the web sites have little glitches- Toys R Us for example is known to crash (several times) and can be a headache the first few minutes. Last year Walmart took awhile to load every item to the correct price- so we saw deals slowly trickling over to the discounted price. This year Kohl’s was supposed to go live at midnight PST and it didn’t actually go live until closer to 2am PST. We can’t control what goes on behind the scenes so sometimes you just have to be patient while they get it all together.
Things will sell out quickly!! Just as you would expect in store, there will not be a limitless supply of things like TVs, game consoles and electronics. You absolutely must be prepared to shop immediately when the ad becomes available. Have your credit card ready and if you have an account with the store, log in before the ad breaks so you can get a very fast check out.
Don’t assume because it is in your cart it is yours! Many stores have free shipping so it can be a good idea to prioritize your items and just hurry up and check out and come back to place another order. I know I have had items in my cart and then by the time I checkout, the item is sold out. So disappointing so don’t let that happen to you- especially on the big ticket things like iPads and Gaming Consoles.
Also very occasionally I see online orders get cancelled. For the most part this does not happen but Walmart especially is notorious for this. So you want to place your order but don’t fully count on the item until you get shipping confirmation.
Q. How long does the sale last?
A. I can’t really say how long a sale will last. Many of these deals will be advertised all weekend but basically the sale typically lasts until they run out of inventory. Also if you decide to wait a day or two, coupon codes, free shipping codes etc… may expire.
Q. What is the Best Way to Follow the Deals?
A. Hopefully my blog is useful to you and the best way to immediately catch the sales is to watch the blog at Myfrugaladventures.com. I post the important deals immediately onto Facebook so you can watch my Facebook page directly too. If you watch your own Facebook news feed, you will catch a very tiny portion of what I actually post. Facebook decides what you can and can’t see and some of my posts are seen by 2,000 people (there are currently 115,000 fans so that is not a good statistic.)
Newsletter subscribers please note the newsletter goes out at 1pm PST each day. Anything posted after 1pm PST you will not see until the following day- which is likely too late. If you do subscribe to the newsletter (thank you!) you might also consider checking in directly for the holiday season. Also please note your email service might cut off half the newsletter. I have yahoo for example and it truncates the newsletter so I have to scroll to the bottom and click the link to be able to see everything. I post so much you are definitely missing a lot if your email truncates the newsletter.
Q. What about Cyber Monday?
A. In my experience, the very, very best deals will be this week. We will also see some deals over the weekend and on Monday but typically the vast majority of things will be posted today, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Q. I want to shop in store. Any tips?
If you do want to shop in store be prepared- check the store you prefer for store maps they might have available. Be aware of the start time as things go quick- prioritize where you want to go in the store and be ready for long lines to checkout.
I hope that helps! Does anyone else have additional tips to offer this year?
Happy Shopping!
Jen says
Have you seen b1g1 Disney infinity characters advertised anywhere?
Lisa says
Thanks for all you do, Charlene!
Getting my fingers ready!!! 🙂