--- title: The Sneaky Secret About Black Friday Sales description: Aside from a few doorbusters, most major retailers' Black Friday sales are actually identical from year to year; even the ads are the same. authors: - name: Martha C. White role: Writer url: https://money.com/author/martha-c-white/ education: BA, English, Princeton University at_money_since: 2015 articles: 350 covers: - Shopping - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Federal Reserve Rate Cuts - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Taxes - Technology published: '2016-11-02T12:59:34.000Z' modified: '2016-11-02T12:59:34.000Z' section: Shopping tags: - Black Friday - black friday deals - pubdesk - Shopping word_count: 314 canonical: https://money.com/black-friday-repeats/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** Money may earn a commission when you click on the products and services below. Opinions are our own, but compensation and in-depth research determine where and how they appear. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/) about how we make money. ![Black Friday kicks off in U.S.](https://img.money.com/2016/11/gettyimages-498987432.jpg) *Shoppers are seen outside a shop on the first day of Black Friday in New York on November 27, 2015.* If you’re not one of those people not motivated enough to set your alarm for midnight or stand on line outside a store to snag a Black Friday deal, don’t worry — there’s always next year. As it turns out, many of those exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime sales aren’t quite as rare as retailers would like you to believe. The website [BradsDeals.com](https://www.bradsdeals.com/blog/same-black-friday-deals), which tracks holiday discounts and other product sales or markdowns at major retailers, compared Black Friday sales circulars from big retailers like Target, Walmart and Best Buy from different years. The findings? While the limited-quantity doorbusters like $100 TVs and the newest electronics do vary from year to year, most of the items in your average Black Friday circular don’t really change from year to year. “Never is this predictability so obvious as when you actually compare the ads side by side,” BradsDeals said, pointing out that often even the photography and layouts are recycled from year to year. One retail consultant quoted by the [*Wall Street Journal*](http://www.wsj.com/articles/black-fridays-inside-secret-same-deals-every-year-1478008801) said the practice is akin to a band reprising its greatest hits. That article also noted that 80% of products and more than 40% of prices in major chains’ Black Friday circulars were identical from 2014 to 2015, according to price data from Market Track. If this sounds like stores pulling a fast one on customers who don’t remember how much that cashmere scarf or crock pot was last year, BradsDeals pointed out that there’s actually a big advantage to this repetition. “If we know that certain items and categories will be marked down by the same amount every year, it makes it a lot easier to make up a holiday shopping list,” they pointed out. You don’t need to wait for Black Friday; just search online for last year’s circulars, and go from there. “Reference previous ads to back your way into a Black Friday budget,” [BradsDeals](https://www.bradsdeals.com/blog/black-friday-shopping-tip-last-years-black-friday-ads) suggested. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/black-friday-repeats/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Shopping", "item": "https://money.com/shopping/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Black Friday", "item": "https://money.com/black-friday/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The Sneaky Secret About Black Friday Sales" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/black-friday-repeats/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/black-friday-repeats/", "name": "The Sneaky Secret About Black Friday Sales", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-11-02T12:59:34.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/black-friday-repeats/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/black-friday-repeats/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-11-02T12:59:34.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "The Sneaky Secret About Black Friday Sales", "articleSection": "Shopping", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/11/gettyimages-498987432.jpg", "width": 5184, "height": 3456, "caption": "Black Friday kicks off in U.S." } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Martha C. 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