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Did it hurt? When you realized we’ve entered our second pandemic holiday shopping season?

Ready or not, Black Friday is coming

Yes, stores are already cramming your inbox with early Black Friday deals. Yes, it’s only mid-October. It may seem a bit pre-emptive, like those neighbors who insist on putting up their Christmas decorations before the leaves fall, but they actually have a very good reason to get a jump on this year’s sales. (No, it’s not just a good, old-fashioned cash grab in response to some strong holiday spending forecasts.)

Three words: Supply chain chaos.

Under circumstances absolutely no one had on their bingo card, pickles and paper bags have gotten as elusive as Playstation 5s. Blame the Delta variant, which continues to inflame pandemic-related material scarcities, labor shortages, and delivery delays across industries of all kinds. Unsurprisingly, this ordeal has left manufacturers and retailers scrambling; Walmart, Home Depot, and Ikea have actually gone so far as to charter private cargo ships to make sure their shelves are stocked for the holidays.

As such, finding the best deals this Black Friday will be a question of availability more so than price.

“There will always be sales, but they won’t be as deep and as plentiful,” Bain & Company’s Aaron Cheris told CNBC last month. (He’s the head of the consulting firm’s Americas Retail practice.) “As a retailer or a brand, I don’t have the same motivation when I know I’m going to stock out.”

Since planning ahead will be your best defense against backorders and “sold out” notices, we’re rolling out our Black Friday coverage way earlier than usual this year. (The early bird gets the Nintendo Switch bundle, so to speak.) We’ll be updating this post with the best deals as sales start to pop up — in the meantime, here are all the must-know details you’ll need ahead of time.

illustration of a woman looking at product deals in the middle of the night

We’ll find the best deals so you don’t have to.
Credit: Vicky Leta / Mashable

What is Black Friday?

Black Friday is a shopping holiday that takes place every year on the day right after Thanksgiving. It used to be synonymous with viral fistfights and stampedes and lines that stretched around city blocks before 3 a.m., but COVID-19 has turned it into a mostly online event.

When is Black Friday?

While Black Friday proper falls on Nov. 26 this year, several stores have already begun trickling out their holiday doorbusters.

Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday — what’s the difference?

The National Retail Federation officially coined the term “Cyber Monday” in 2005 after it noticed that in previous years, the Monday after Thanksgiving saw a massive uptick in online sales. It credited the phenomenon to two factors: Online retailers were starting to vie for a piece of the Black Friday pie, and shoppers were waiting to peruse the deals on their faster work computers come Monday morning. (At the time, office PCs had better broadband than home setups.)

Last year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales effectively bled together since in-person shopping wasn’t really a thing. We’ll almost certainly see that repeat this coming November.

What stores will be open for in-person shopping this Black Friday, if any?

Most major retailers’ Black Friday hours are still TBD, but we already know that Walmart, Best Buy, Target, Kohl’s, and Bed Bath & Beyond will close their doors on Thanksgiving Day. (That’s another big change from pre-pandemic years, when many stayed open on the federal holiday so that eager shoppers could get a jump on their best deals.) If you feel the urgent need to do some post-pie shopping that day, you’ll have to crack open your laptop instead.

Illustration of a man smiling while opening up a box

Don’t forget to order a little something nice for yourself this year. You earned it.
Credit: Mashable Illustration

Here are the best deals at each retailer

Amazon: Starting Oct. 4, Amazon is dropping “Black Friday-worthy deals” every day in the leadup until the actual holiday. Find out what’s up for grabs by visiting its Epic Daily Deals page, installing its mobile app, or by asking your smart home device, “Alexa, what are my deals?” The last time we checked, its best offers included a $150 discount on an M1-equipped MacBook Pro, a $35 savings on the first-gen Echo Show 5, and $150 off a Shark robot vacuum that can charge and empty itself.

Bed Bath & Beyond: Check back later for deals!

Best Buy: The electronics store has announced that it’s running multiple Black Friday sales this year, beginning with a four-day sale from Oct. 19 to Oct. 22 featuring “hundreds” of discounts on must-have tech. (Its official Black Friday sale will also start a whole week early on Nov. 19, but everything is covered by a new “Black Friday Price Guarantee” no matter when you shop.) If you can’t wait ’til then, you can visit its website to shop some early deals; at the time of writing, you could take $1,000 off the new iPhone 13 with a trade-in and qualified activation, save $800 on a 75-inch Samsung QLED TV, and score a $10 reward by buying a $100 DoorDash gift card.

Dell: Check back later for deals!

Kohl’s: Check back later for deals!

Macy’s: The department store will kick off its Black Friday sale on Tuesday, Nov. 23. Check back later for deals!

Target: The bullseye brand doesn’t have anything on the calendar in the wake of its Deal Days event (which ended Oct. 12), but feel free to keep shopping there anyway: Its holiday price match policy is now in effect through Dec. 24, and you can also take advantage of two new “buy now, pay later” payment options through Sezzle and Affirm. Check back later for deals!

Walmart: The big box store has also nixed layaway in favor of a new “buy now, pay later” program as part of its partnership with Affirm. Check back later for deals!

Best tech deals

a woman wearing a pair of silver airpods max looks an ipad in a dark room

Apple’s premium over-ear headphones have never been as cheap as they are right now at Best Buy.
Credit: Apple

Amazon Echo: Save $35 on the first-gen Echo Show 5 and get $30 off the second-gen Echo Show 8.

Amazon Fire tablets: Save 25% when you buy two Fire Kids tablets.

Apple: Take $100 off the AirPods Max, $70 off some AirPods Pro, and up to $150 off MacBooks with the M1 chip. Plus, save up to $1,000 on the all-new iPhone 13 with a trade-in and qualified activation at Best Buy.

Beats: Get a pair of the new Beats Studio Buds for just $124.95 — that’s a 17% savings and their highest discount to date.

Bose: Save up to 29% on select headphones and earbuds.

Fujifilm: Save $10 on the Instax Mini 11.

JBL: Take up to 40% off headphones and earbuds, including up to 25% off its Quantum line of gaming headphones.

Kindle: Save up to 33% on Kindle Paperwhite Essentials Bundles.

Samsung: Get up to 21% off select Galaxy Watches, up to 25% off select QLED TVs, and up to 31% off select soundbars. Plus, save $50 on the Galaxy Buds+.

Sony: Take 25% off the 75-inch Sony X0J 4K HDR TV and up to 31% off the BRAVIA XR X90J series of 4K Google TVs.

Vizio: Save $110 on the new 50-inch M-Series 4K HDR Smart TV.