As Black Friday nears, tech deals appear
NEW YORK—As Thanksgiving approaches, a few things are constant.
Macy's will have a parade, football will be played and people will line up through the night to get a jump on Black Friday deals.
One other new guarantee that has emerged over the last few years is that many of the best deals available on Black Friday will be tech deals, a trend that so far looks to continue this holiday season. Among the products looking to see big discounts include 4K HDTVs, game consoles like the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 and computers.
Major retailers Amazon, Walmart, Target and Best Buy have yet to release their Black Friday plans, but some outlets have already begun releasing their promos or have seen them leak.
Earlier this week, Sam's Club announced that they would begin offering deep discounts on electronics starting next Saturday, November 14, joining a growing list of stores offering one-day only pre-Black Friday sales.
Amazon begins long road to Christmas
During that sale, the Walmart subsidiary will be offering a 65-inch Vizio 4K Smart TV for $998 ($300 off) and $150 off an 64GB iPad Air 2 WiFi (normally at Sam's Club for between $587 and $600).
Leaked ads from the retailer, spotted by TheBlackFriday.com, reveal potentially even better deals on a 50-inch Vizio 4K Smart TV for $498 (a savings of $230) and a PS4 bundle for $299 that also includes one free game (a savings of $50).
Those Sam's Club's deals are available in-store as well as online, though you need to have a membership to take advantage of them. The deep discounts however, look to be expanding to other retailers that don't require any membership such as Dell's online store.
Last month, Black Friday-watching website BlackFriday.com leaked images of Dell's upcoming Black Friday circular offering a peak of deals to come. Of note: a 500GB Xbox One bundle that includes Gears of War, Fallout 4 and an extra controller for $299.99 (a savings of $170), a 55-inch 4K Smart TV from LG for $699.99 and a 60-inch 4K Smart TV from Vizio for $799.99 (a discount of $700), as well as hundreds of dollars off of new laptops, desktops and tablets.
For Walmart, Target stores, holidays start Nov. 1
In a statement provided to USA TODAY, Dell confirmed the validity of the leak and the discounts listed. "We did not leak our 'Black Friday' or 'Cyber Monday' deals, but the ads being picked up are accurate," says Dave Bent, Dell's vice president and general manager of North America for consumer and small business.
"We are going bigger and better than last year, which was a huge success," he said. "We'll have the lowest price laptop we've ever had ($149.99), the lowest-priced desktop we've ever had ($99.99), steeply discounted Alienware systems, and tons of deals on non-Dell branded devices like TVs, wearables, headphones and game consoles."
According to the leaked ad Dell's Black Friday starts at 6 P.M. EST on Thanksgiving and will continue through Black Friday.
With three weeks until Black Friday, it remains to be seen what other deals will be coming. But if this holiday season holds true to form, there should be plenty more discounts on tech on the way.
Follow Eli Blumenthal on Twitter @eliblumenthal
