Over the past few years, stores have been pushing for holiday sales extending well before the traditional Black Friday weekend. With the pandemic and supply chain crises going on, some stores are trying to find ways to avoid large crowds, panic buying, restocking issues, and shipping delays. While it may seem a bit crazy to think about holiday gifts before we even get through Halloween, the deals are about to — or already! — kicking off.
Here’s a brief overview of some of the stores hoping that you’ll be the early bird who gets the worm discount. But while this list is rather short, there’s still a lot of sales yet to be revealed. And some have already had a bit of Black Friday early already! Yes, it’s true.
One basic tip: make sure you are subscribed to your favorite stores’ emails so you don’t miss more of these Black Friday-in-October sales events. For instance, Hot Topic and BoxLunch, for instance, sent out mystery codes last weekend for up to 50% off your purchase, and Amazon had a Funimation deal day back on the 10th.
Best Buy
Select products are tagged as “Black Friday Prices Guaranteed”. Purchase with your Best Buy Totaltech or My Best Buy account number, and if the price drops lower on these items, you will receive an automatic refund for the difference. These items may rotate in and out and extend beyond the stated end date of October 31st.
This sale includes tech, video games, and more.
Target
Keep on eye on what you buy at Target: the holiday price match policy runs from October 10th to December 24th. On almost all Target purchases, if the price goes down at Target by December 24th, you are able to request a refund for the difference. For store orders, shoppers can go to any lane for an adjustment, while Target.com orders will need to be contacted 1-800-591-3869. Normal price matching rules and limitations apply, which can be found here.
Target also has some currently available coupons through Target Circle like 10% off one electronics item or 25% off one toy-related item (exclusions apply).
Walmart
Walmart is bringing back “Black Friday Deals for Days” with a series of three events. The third one is yet to be revealed, but the first two already have ads out.
On November 3rd, the first wave will go live online with the store version happening on November 5th. Event 2 will follow the same schedule the following week (November 10th and 12th). You’ll have to get up early for the store deals: 5 AM, to be exact. The Wednesday online sales will be available at 7 PM ET, and Walmart+ members will have a three hour early access window starting at 3 PM ET. Deals include Roku 4K Premiere for $19.88 in Event 1 and Apple AirPods for $89 in Event 2.
Last year, Walmart had some great prices on video games (especially Switch titles), so hopefully they are saving those types of savings for Event 3.