Black Friday isn't just Black Friday anymore.
What started as one day has become a creeping specter that blankets the entire month. Between countdown to Black Friday deals that have already started, actual Black Friday, pre-Cyber Monday sales and Cyber Monday, shoppers might as well refer to Black Friday as The November Blackout...because the sales stretch across all 30 days of the month.
Consider the end of Halloween night as the unofficial start of the holiday season — and shoppers could either thank or boo giants such as Walmart and Amazon for that.
Walmart, the world's biggest retailer, launched its pre-Black Friday/holiday deals Sunday, November 1...a full three and a half weeks before the actual day on the 27th. And Walmart won't stop once Cyber Monday (November 30) is over, either. It will keep going until the end of 2015 with its all-out, two-month blitz of holiday sales.
Amazon, too, officially announced its own countdown to Black Friday on Tuesday with the launch of its Black Friday Deals store and Electronics Holida Gift Guide. The former part of the plan gives Amazon Prime members access to upwards of 30,000 Lightning Deals 30 minutes earlier than non-members. The timed 'Deals of the Day' are prominently placed on Amazon's homepage with one click opening up a sea of options.
"Shoppers come to Amazon to discover the best deals on the best gifts and this year, we're pulling out all of the stops," Steve Shure, vice president of Amazon's consumer marketing department, said in a company press release about the jump on Black Friday. "We're giving Prime members early access to more than 30,000 Lightning Deals and for all customers, tens of thousands of great deals in the Black Friday Deals store."
Amongst the jewels that they're touting — Amazon is offering 30 percent off a Sony XBR55X900C 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD TV with a Blu-ray Player. Walmart's pre-Black Friday special of an Apple iPad Mini 2, equipped with 16GB of storage for $199 for a savings of $70, is also half the price of the new iPad Mini. That deal is available to shoppers in stores and online.
Giants like Walmart and Amazon aren't the only outlets stretching out Black Friday with deals that last the entire month of November and beyond. Computer outlet Newegg isn't even trying to be cute. Instead, it's blatantly advertising Black November on its site, touting, "shop Black Friday deals all month."
Now, there's no excuse for being a last-minute shopper. You're getting an extra three weeks of shopping seemingly everywhere you look.
Welcome to The November Blackout. Have your credit card handy.
