| Black Friday looks to be a bleak Friday |
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| Written by Scott Perdue | |
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Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving – is always one of the biggest shopping days of the year. Many retailers open very early (around 5:00 a.m.) and offer great deals on popular products. This year, however, looks to be a bit of an exception. Although some retailers have yet to release their ads, this year’s shopping season does not appear to be very promising. Aside from a sub-$130 GPS receiver at Staples and Wal-Mart, there really aren’t any amazing deals. A few weeks ago, Wal-Mart offered a Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player for $98, which included five free HD-DVDs after rebate. This early sale, which Wal-Mart did last year as well, appeared to be a sign of things to come. It was, however, merely the beginning of a letdown. In Wal-Mart’s recently leaked Black Friday ad, no HD-DVDs are on sale at all; they are merely dumping their standard DVDs, although the $2.96 price tag is reasonable for those without an HD setup. Additionally, Wal-Mart’s biggest sale is a Polaroid 42” LCD HDTV for $798. While this is a decent deal, it’s certainly not on par with the $98 HD-DVD player that was offered a month before Thanksgiving. For those in the market for TVs, GPS receivers, standard definition DVDs, hard drives, PCs or blank media, you are in luck. Both Staples and Wal-Mart are offering decent deals on all of the above. However, they’re really not offering much more than that. No stores are selling cheap HD-DVDs or video game bundles. In fact, a lot of the stuff in Wal-Mart’s ad – such as an Xbox 360 Arcade bundle – are already selling for their advertised Black Friday price (in this case, $279). Bottom line: there is a severe lack of severely hot deals this year. One might think that living in the retail-starven city of Rolla is to blame for the lack of good Black Friday deals in the area. To an extent, that is correct. However, even giants like Best Buy and Circuit City have sub-par deals this year when compared to those of the past. But hey, even though the deals aren’t great, Black Friday is as much about the thrill than the actual deals. So yes, I will be in the crowd of people rushing through the doors of Staples before the crack of dawn on the day after Thanksgiving, and I’m going to love it. |
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