Live Updates
Black Friday 2021 has officially arrived—promising mega deals on everything from tech gadgets and gaming consoles, to beauty products and homeware.
While the annual shopping bonanza always takes place on the Friday after Thanksgiving, last year’s event was online-only, owing to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
However, once more, stores are opening their doors to customers and offering in-store offers and exclusive deals to entice shoppers.
For those concerned about in-store shopping, here are the measures retailers are taking to ensure customer safety.
As has been the case for some years now, some brands have revealed early Black Friday deals, including Walmart, Epic Games, Nintendo and more.
Follow along with Newsweek’s Black Friday 2021 live blog, as we reveal the best and biggest offers throughout the day, as they happen.
Glossier / Amazon / Dyson
In the words of Missy Elliot: Get ur freak on
Enjoy a pleasurable 60 per cent off LoveHoney sex toys, lingerie and more.
Calling all fashionistas! This Victoria Beckham jumper is currently on sale (and v on trend)
As part of its Black Friday event, luxury fashion marketplace Net-a-Porter is offering 40 per cent off this cosy, striped jumper designed by Posh Spice.
Net-a-Porter
Originally priced at $385, you can now purchase the sweater for $231—and get an extra 15 per cent off when you use the promo code “BLACK FRIDAY.”
Samsung chops $250 off new fold phones
The tech company has a range of big discounts to celebrate Black Friday this year—all lasting over nine days.
The price of the new Galaxy Z Fold3 5G has been sliced by $250, while sister phone the Galaxy Z Flip3 5G—now customizable – is being sold for $100 off.
Samsung is also offering up to $900 credit for eligible trade-in items, meaning you could land yourself a new Fold3 device for just $650—down from $1,800.
Ninja is offering up to $150 off select items or 15 per cent discount across its entire site
If you’re after some new kitchen appliances, then look not further: Ninja is offering customers some serious Black Friday discounts on everything from coffee machines and countertop ovens, to grills and pressure cookers.
Simply use the promo code “DEALS15” to get 15 per cent off.
This coffee maker as the site’s doorbuster deal for $199.99 (you get $70 off with promo code “BFWKD70”).
Walmart is also selling this Nina pressure cooker for just $149 (reduced from $229).
Walmart / Ninja
Check out these Apple Watch discounts at Target, Walmart and Best Buy before they’re gone
Deals on Apple Watches are few and far between right now, but you can find them at some outlets.
Target it is selling the Series 3 model (with a 42mm display) for $199, which represents a 13% saving.
Meanwhile, Walmart has the Apple Watch Series 3 with a 38mm display, sport band and Aluminium case going for just $109 (marked down from $199).
Most of the deals, however, are at Best Buy. The retailer has an entire page dedicated to Apple’s wearable devices, where you can find some huge discounts.
For example, you can save $60 on the Apple Watch SE and can get the Nike SE model for $219 (it was originally $279). There is even a Gold edition going for cheaper than usual on the website, if you want to be a little fancier.
A fan of anime, manga or figurines? Here are the best deals for you
Black Friday is seeing a flood of discounts on premium anime, manga, and figurine brands From anime to manga, with some of the most popular Funimation DVD bundles reaching 30 per cent off.
One such bundle is perfect for a movie night, sold with the blanket and the films: One Piece: Stampede, One Piece Film: Gold, One Piece Film: Z, and One Piece Film: Strong World for just $59.99—slashed from $139.99.
Amazon/Funimation/Crunchyroll
Barnes and Noble is making a number of digital manga from Viz Media available for just $3.99 today, with the “Manga Series Starter” deal allowing fans to buy the first volume of dozens of different series.
Top figurine brands are also cutting prices, with Nendroids, Scale Figures, and Funko Pops all getting in on the Black Friday action. Crunchyroll is also currently offering a discount on a number of their items, with products up to 40 per cent off site-wide on Black Friday.
FULL STORY: Anime Black Friday Deals 2021: Best Offers On DVDs, Manga, Crunchyroll & More
It’s time to start getting ready for today’s PS5 and Xbox Series X restocks
Console trackers are predicting that the PS5 and Xbox Series X will soon be restocked at both Target and potentially Best Buy.
According to these reports (which come from reputable tracker accounts), the Target drop could be happening anytime between now and 9 a.m. ET.
Meanwhile, Best Buy does often favor Fridays for its normal restocks, so it makes that they would have one scheduled for today.
To help you get ahead of the crowds, Newsweek has prepared a tips and tricks guide for getting ahold of either a PS5 or Xbox Series X during Black Friday. This covers everything from how to spot imminent drops, how to get fair deals, and how to troubleshoot issues if you are struggling to add items to your basket.
It contains expert insights from analyst @GYXdeals on Twitter, who basically does this as a full-time job, so it’s defiantly worth reading.
From multiplayer shooters to sports blockbusters and even dance titles, you can get massive savings on video games
Not only are video games on sale for Black Friday, but you can actually get some of the latest blockbusters for almost half price.
Major releases like Battlefield 2042, NBA 2K22, Madden NFL 22 and Just Dance 2022 (generally a lot of titles that end with dates) have been dramatically reduced in price.
EA/ Ubisoft
Not only that, but the deals are evenly spread between different platforms meaning that, whether you’re an Xbox, PlayStation or Nintendo fan, there will be something here for you.
Even some games that came out as little as two weeks ago have been slashed down by quite a bit, so you’ll definitely want to check these deals out.
Newsweek has compiled a list of highlights right here.
Where the name ‘Black Friday’ comes from
The phrase was reportedly first coined back in 1960s Pennsylvania, when huge crowds of shoppers and traffic jams in Philadelphia the day after Thanksgiving led to police naming it as such.
But HuffPost reported that as early as 1961, public relations bosses were furiously attempting to give the nickname a positive spin by trying to change it to “Big Friday.”
According to David Zyla, the author of How to Win at Shopping, one of the first uses of the term that appeared in print—to publicize it as a day for lots of shopping—was in an advert in the 1966 issue of The American Philatelist, a magazine for stamp collectors.
FULL STORY: When Is Black Friday 2021 and How Did the Shopping Extravaganza Start?
Bag 40% off Gucci shades + an extra 15% off with this Net-a-Porter promo code
Net-a-Porter’s Black Friday sale is offering an additional 15% off on selected lines, including these chic, gold-toned Gucci shades featuring a “GG” motif pattern.
Net-a-Porter
The sunglasses are currently priced at $288 (a 40 percent reduction from $480). Get the extra 15 per cent off the current price using the promo code: “BLACKFRIDAY.”
Just how popular is Black Friday around the world?
It may not come as a surprise, but Black Friday has taken much of the world by storm in recent years, with consumers from many countries counting down the days until the big shopping extravaganza.
Research by Sensormatic has revealed that the discount event beats the grandest of pre-Christmas shopping sprees in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, and even South Africa.
But what are the top three most popular shopping days in North America?
U.S.
- November 26 – Black Friday
- December 18 – Super Saturday
- December 23 – Thursday before Christmas
Canada
- November 26 – Black Friday
- December 26 – Boxing Day
- November 27 – Saturday after Black Friday
Mexico
- November 13 – Saturday before Revolution Day
- November 15 – Revolution Day (observed)
- November 14 – Sunday before Revolution Day
Some Amazon devices are going for half price right now
You can get deals on Amazon own brand products for Black Friday, including the Fire TV Stick, Kindle eBook readers and Ring video doorbell devices.
There is even an Echo Dot designed to resemble Baby Yoda from The Mandalorian, which is frankly the cutest that a smart speaker is ever going to look.
While a lot of these discounts are obviously featured on the Amazon marketplace itself, that’s not necessarily where you will get the cheapest deals.
Amazon
FULL STORY: Best Amazon Black Friday Deals 2021: From Kindles and Ring to Echo Smart Speakers
“Some sales are not really sales”: Jean Chatzky spoke to Newsweek about how to avoid getting stung
Recent research has found many items that go on sale over Black Friday are not as legitimate as you might think, with many products inflated in price to be given misleading discounts—so how do you catch them out?
Speaking exclusively to Newsweek, Jean Chatzky, the host of the HerMoney podcast, said the best thing is “do your research” and check the price history of the product you want to buy.
Some sales aren’t really sales. There are stores that routinely offer 25 per cent off everything when they run ‘Friends & Family’ days, for example. When they do the same for the holidays, it’s not such a big deal.
FULL STORY: 9 Black Friday Tips From Jean Chatzky and The NRF On How to Get The Best Deals and Offers
How are stores keeping COVID-safe today?
Black Friday is notorious for huge crowds bundling into shops to grab the best deals before anybody else—but things may not look the same this year.
Walmart has decided to spread its sale across the whole of this month to pry customers away from its stores and onto its website, with major discounts going live from November 22.
But rest assured, staff will be wearing masks in-store today and you will be encouraged to as well, with COVID cases beginning to rise across the country once again.
Best Buy—named the “No. 1 big-box retailer for COVID-19 safety” this year—is doing “wellness checks” for their staff as well as regular deep cleans of those most-touched places in its stores. Like most other major stores today, customers will be asked to form an orderly queue to control the numbers going in/out…but will it work?
FULL STORY: What stores are doing to keep shoppers safe
Walmart is offering huge discounts on smart TVs, robot vacuum cleaners and games
Walmart has been running early Black Friday deals since November 22. Most of these are still available now, meaning that you can get huge savings on things like 4K smart TVs, self-emptying vacuum cleaners and various Apple products.
You can find a breakdown of some of the highlights right here. The piece also includes links that go straight through to Walmart’s respective product pages for the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. You might want to have those bookmarked in case there is a restock later today.
Walmart was previously running other Black Friday deals even earlier in the month, but those ones have since expired.
