Black Friday comes early this year

For years, the day after Thanksgiving has been termed “Black Friday,” because it’s one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Retailers hope it’s one of the most profitable ones, too. That’s how the day got its name, as you perhaps know: merchants have historically relied on Black Friday to move out of the red and into the black, hence showing a profit.

But with price competition already intense, some giant discounters have started dangling Black Friday deals well in advance of Nov. 28. Here, for your Saturday shopping pleasure, are a few to consider ...

Kmart just started offering a rotating array of deeply discounted specials and will continue to do so through Nov. 23. Each week, 15 different products, including many home electronics, will be featured in store circulars, available in print and on the company’s Web site.

Some of the bargains in the first batch of deals included a 32-inch Sylvania LCD television for $440 (regularly $550); Guitar Hero 3 Legends of Rock video game for PS2 at $45 (regularly $90); and a Mach Speed Zodiak 2GB video MP3 player for $40 (regularly $70).

Kmart public relations spokesman Tom Aiello cited the sour economy a big reason behind earlier and more aggressive discounting. "Consumers told us they want the deals now, and didn’t want to wait for one particular day for a big sale," he says. The store is also trying to get shoppers to sign up for its layaway program, which we covered in a recent post.

Besides Black Friday mega-deals, Aiello says Kmart will be enticing shoppers with more unadvertised sales this year, longer store hours, and greater promotion of gifts priced at $25 or less.

Just make sure the sale prices are really a deal. One of the items featured this week, for example, is the Kodak M763 digital camera for $100. But when we checked various online shopping sites, we found that B&H Photo -- among others -- had the same Kodak camera at nearly the same price.

Deep discounting is going on at Wal-Mart, too. The company just announced that it’s be rolling back prices on thousands of items, from food and board games to coffeemakers and toys, every week for the next seven weeks as part of a initiative called “Operation Main Street.” The rollbacks, according to Wal-Mart, amount to $200 million in additional savings for consumers.

To kick off the event, Wal-Mart is having a one-day sale today featuring special savings on home electronics items, including a Sony 2-gig Walkman Mp3 player for around $50 and a Compaq CQ-139WM 1.4-inch laptop with a 160-GB hard drive and 2 Gb of RAM for $300.

Discounters are one of the few shining lights of retailing these days. The New York Times reported on Friday that sales at the nation’s largest retailers --  as ritzy as Neiman Marcus to as mainstream as the Gap --  fell off a cliff in October. (Value-oriented chains like Wal-Mart and BJ’s Wholesale Club seem to be holding their own.) The article quoted industry analysts who said that many retailers are so desperate that they’re slashing prices to levels that are almost unheard of.

In the meantime, you don’t have to wait until the last minute to learn about Black Friday blockbusters at other stores. You can often check out many of the deals in advance at Web sites such as www.bfads.net, www.black-friday.net, www.theblackfriday.com, www.tgiblackfriday.com, and www.blackfriday.info.

Comments

[TOD]

Here are a few more sites with Black Friday deals that were suggested by commenters. Amazing how this single shopping day has practically become an industry!

http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com
http://www.1001webshops.com

-- Tod