What you need to know
- Several retailers already have Black Friday deals live despite the shopping event being next week on November 29, 2024.
- Best Buy even says “Black Friday is here” already.
- Traditionally, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving but since Thanksgiving is later than usual this year, retailers have been more aggressive with Black Friday.
- It’s common to see early Black Friday deals throughout November but retailers usually hold out on claiming Black Friday is here until the day after Thanksgiving.
It’s not you, retailers appear to have ignored the calendar when it comes to Black Friday. The shopping event, which usually occurs the day after Thanksgiving, is a bit later in November than it was in recent years. The shift appears to have pushed sites such as Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart to move Black Friday forward or at least roll out deals ahead of Black Friday.
To be clear, this isn’t the first year retailers have rolled out Black Friday deals before the “holiday.” It’s fairly normal to see “early Black Friday deals” and similar promotions as early as the beginning of November. But this year retailers appear to be more aggressive with store-wide deals and the number of early Black Friday discounts.
If you go to Best Buy’s website, a large banner promotion reads “Black Friday is here” and Amazon’s home page says “shop epic Black Friday deals.” Walmart took a slightly different approach by advertising its Black Friday deals as beginning on November 25, which is a Monday. Even though the Walmart site says Black Friday deals are incoming next week, some early Black Friday deals are already live.
When is Black Friday this year?
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving but since Thanksgiving moves around on the calendar, Black Friday shifts as well. Thanksgiving is on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States, which means it can land as early as November 22 or as late as November 28. This year, Thanksgiving is as late as possible, which leaves retailers with a Black Friday on November 29, 2024 and a Cyber Monday on December 2, 2024. Those are almost an entire week later than recent Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays (Black Friday was on November 24 last year and in 2022).
“Why miss out on a week of deals?” appears to be the question retailers are asking in 2024. Rather than calling discounts early Black Friday deals, some stores are just saying Black Friday has already started despite it being November 22.
🎃The best early Black Friday deals🦃
Black Friday deals
It’s debatable if an earlier Black Friday, even if artificially moved forward, is a good thing or a bad thing. Some will lament the expansion of a consumer-focused event and that it now overlaps Thanksgiving. Others are just happy to save money. My guess is many people have a mixture of feelings.
If you’d like to get some shopping done early, below are some of the best deals at Amazon, Best Buy, Dell, and Walmart.
