A few days ago, we discovered a leaked portion of Macy’s Black Friday ad and posted it for our fans who are eagerly awaiting Black Friday shopping at Macy’s. It was very well received. Perhaps too well received, because it also caught the attention of Macy’s. And although our fans were very pleased, Macy’s was decidedly not pleased at all.
We’ve agreed to remove the leaked Black Friday info from our website. However, this removal is only temporary. The day is coming soon when Macy’s will give us the all clear to post the full ad for you in all its glory.
In the meantime, here’s last year’s Macy’s commercial. We know it’s nowhere close to being as exciting as the Macy’s Black Friday ad, but we still kind of love it. If you’d like to be notified when the full and authorized ad is posted, sign up to receive our Black Friday Alerts.
Although we don’t have an official Macy Black Friday Ad yet, there has been a new Macy’s leak of 20 Black Friday items that allegedly will be in the official Black Friday ad. Our source is credible and the prices look legit to us, but we’re filing this as a rumor until we see the ad itself. Take a look at all 20 items and their prices. You can buy the Charter Club Down Comforter right now at its supposed Black Friday price, and the Lauren Ralph Lauren Logo Pillow will be reduced by just $1 from its current sale price, so we recommend buying these items now rather than later when high Black Friday demand may lead to shortages and backorders. On the other hand, the collection of small kitchen appliances for $9.99 each look like true Black Friday bargains.
Planning on purchasing a Kindle Fire HD on Black Friday? Amazon.com has announced they will be kicking off their 2012 Black Friday Deals Week starting Monday, November 19th. Amazon.com will have Black Friday deals all day, every day during the week, including Black Friday, of course, the day after Thanksgiving.
What kind of Black Friday deals can you expect from Amazon.com this year? You can expect deals on electronics, low prices on DVDs, toy bargains, clothing, jewelry and more, just in time for the holiday season. Like last year, we expect many consumers will be taking advantage of the Black Friday deals on Amazon.com, and deals will go quickly. So if you plan to shop at Amazon.com this year, make sure you’re at a computer with a fast internet connection and be the one of the first to snag all the deals.
Target has flip flopped on their holiday and Black Friday plans more in the last month than your favorite warm-weather footwear did all summer.
At the beginning of September Target announced that they were backing out of the holiday price wars and would not be playing the low price game with their competitors this year. Then, around the end of September, Target announced that they would in fact be joining Best Buy, Walmart, and pretty much every other store in America in participating in Black Friday.
Over the weekend we reported that Best Buy would be price matching online competitors in efforts to cut down on losses due to “Showrooming”. Now, according to Mashable, Target has said they will be doing the same. Showrooming is when customers go to Target to check out the products that they’re thinking of buying, but then leave the store after looking at it to go buy it online for a better price. The Target store becomes a show room for the online store. To keep this from happening, Target will be price matching select online retailers such as amazon.com, BestBuy.com, Toysrus.com, Babiesrus.com, and their own site, target.com. Just like with Best Buy’s price matching, there are a few rules.
We talked last week about how Walmart and Best Buy were both on the same page on Black Friday hours; with stores in New Jersey applying to local townships to open on Thursday at midnight.
Now Walmart and Best Buy have something else in common; offering price matching on internet products. In addition to price matching against competitors like amazon.com, Best Buy will also be offering free home delivery on out of stock merchandise this holiday season and same-day, in-store pick-up of products purchased online.
Why is Best Buy doing this?
Best Buy suffers during the holiday season from something known as “Showrooming”. We’ve all done it. Customers come in and check out an item in person to get a feel for it, and then go home and shop online for a better price once they decide that they want it. When customers do this Best Buy becomes a “showroom” for their online-only competitors like amazon.com and buy.com.
Before you start hunting online for bargains there are a few restrictions:
While thousands rush to get bargain basement prices on electronics, toys, and other brand name merchandise on Black Friday, Record Stores are encouraging people to avoid the commercialism of the day by stopping in to their independent stores. While stores won’t be offering huge price cuts or bargains, you can still look forward to special releases on rare and limited edition records. Record Store Day celebrates the art of music, worldwide.
Record Store Day brings together artists, musicians, and record stores, alike. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists in the United States and in various countries across the globe make special appearances and performances. Record Store Day festivities include performances, cook-outs, body painting, meet & greets with artists,
parades, djs spinning records and more. Metallica officially kicked off the first Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Francisco on April 19, 2008 and Record Store Day is celebrated each year on the third Saturday every April.
Starting in 2010, Record Store Day jumped on the bandwagon with large retailers, taking advantage of people’s enthusiasm for shopping on the day after Thanksgiving by introducing Record Store Black Friday. On Black Friday this year, shoppers can grab releases from Rolling Stones, My Morning Jacket, The Lumineers, Skrillex and The White Stripes.’
Macy’s is one of many retailers who have announced plans for 2012 seasonal hiring. Macy’s has reported they will be hiring 80,000 seasonal workers to prepare for the 2012 holiday season, including Black Friday. This amount is 2.5% more than they hired last year to work at both Macy’s and Bloomingdales stores. Macy’s will be hiring for associates to work on sales floor, in store operations, in call centers, and at shipping centers.
These seasonal hires are being brought on to ensure customer satisfaction during the shopping season, as outlined by the chairman of Macy’s, Inc. Terry K. Lundgren. “Hiring additional associates for holidays ensures that our customers are well-served in this busy shopping period – both on the sales floor and behind the scenes,” he says and states that these jobs are intended to help a variety of americans earn some extra money like college students, retirees, and people look for some extra cash during the holiday season.
Target will be participating in Black Friday 2012. We noticed earlier today that Target’s annual “Save the Date” page has gone live, confirming once and for all that it has not given up on Black Friday this year.
This comes on the heels of last month’s rather blunt announcement that that they would not be playing the low price game for the holidays this year. The announcement had touched off a firestorm of internet rumors that Target also would refuse to offer any Black Friday specials.
So at last, Target’s Black Friday faithful can breathe a sigh of relief. Black Friday at Target is definitely on. We would have been more surprised if this wasn’t the case, as Target is consistently one of the top four Black Friday retailers in the United States. It didn’t make much sense that they would abandon Black Friday altogether, though we may not see blockbuster prices on doorbuster electronics. (more…)
10/8/12 – As of this past weekend, the price on the Samsung Galaxy S3 already has dropped to $99.99 with 2-year contract with Sprint. Verizon’s offering with 2-year contract is $139 and the same deal via AT&T is currently $119.
The first Black Friday 2012 ad of the year has leaked!
Image Credit: Engadget
We know, it’s not even Halloween yet, but Sprint is already thinking forward to the holiday season. Thanks to anonymous tip given to engadget, we know that Sprint will offer the the Samsung Galaxy S III for only $49.99 on November 23, 2012. This deal will be available ONLY on Black Friday! According to the leaked ad, you will be saving $150 on the Samsung Galaxy S III at Sprint if you agree to a two-year contract. Supplies are expected to be limited, so plan to get there early to get your hands on the Samsung Galaxy S III at this incredibly low price.
The lowest price we found on the Samsung Galaxy S III is $179.99 with a 2 year contract at Best Buy, so the Sprint Black Friday 2012 promotion offers $130in total savings from the current lowest priced deal that we found for that phone. (more…)
Black Friday enthusiasts and so-called journalists are buzzing about a list of Black Friday store hours that is being passed around and republished all over the internet. The problem is that despite being completely unsubstantiated, the list is being circulated as fact. We reported on the rumor a few weeks back, but never thought that so many people across the internet would fall for such an obvious fake. Cue facepalm.
How to spot a fake list of Black Friday store hours
Fake news is easy to spot if you’re using common sense.
Black Friday is big business, and there’s no way that any retailer with a marketing and public relations department worth its salt is going to release any piece of their strategy into the wild without a media blitz. Here’s why the store hours lists don’t pass the smell test:
No press releases from the retailers. Every single move a retailer makes will be wrought in painstaking detail via press releases, complete with quotes from C-level executives and vice presidents of fancy department titles. Where are these press releases? They don’t exist. Believe me, if they did exist then we would have reported the news here immediately.
Black Friday hours have not been posted on retailers’ websites. A second credible source of Black Friday store hours is the retailer’s website. None of the stores on the circulating list have posted their Black Friday hours on their sites.
No quotes from company representatives.
As a Black Friday news source, we jump at the chance to include quotes in our reporting. We’re not alone in this, so I’m fairly certain that if quotes existed then they would have been included in the articles. (more…)
It was very well received. Perhaps too well received, because it also caught the attention of Macy’s. And although our fans were very pleased, Macy’s was decidedly not pleased at all.
