--- title: Black Friday Sales Are Already Here, With Amazon Leading the Pack description: November 1 has come to mark the kick off of the holiday sales period, with early deals from Amazon, Office Depot, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and more. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Shopping - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2016-11-01T14:36:56.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T04:25:04.000Z' section: Shopping tags: - Amazon - deals - holiday shopping - online shopping - pubdesk - Shopping word_count: 339 canonical: https://money.com/black-friday-sales-early-deals-amazon-walmart-target/ 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. ![160111_EM_BLACKFRIDAY](https://img.money.com/2016/11/160111_em_blackfriday.jpg) For years, Black Friday—the day after Thanksgiving—unofficially kicked off the holiday shopping season. But then stores started [opening on Thanksgiving](https://money.com/thanksgiving-shopping-boycotts/), and online and brick-and-mortar retailers launched big sales days and weeks before then. By 2014, the day after Halloween had been established as a major launch point for early Black Friday promotions, and this year November 1 is again a noteworthy day for holiday sales. Amazon kicked things off at 3 a.m. ET (midnight PT) last night with the first of tens of thousands of sales during its [Countdown to Black Friday Deals Week](https://www.amazon.com/Black-Friday/b?ie=UTF8&node=384082011&_encoding=UTF8&tag=money018f-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=487de554031404663ae73027dbf411bb&camp=1789&creative=9325) promotions. The site is promoting discounts on a range of electronics, toys, clothes, and household goods, with most deals available only for 24 hours or until they're sold out. But are the "deals" actually *deals*? Be cautious. The discounts available on Tuesday morning were typically in the neighborhood of 30% to 40% off—the kinds of markdowns that pop up left and right throughout the year. As [*USA Today*](http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2016/11/01/amazons-black-friday-deals-start-today/93098696/) noted, "Don't expect many of the big ticket deals that headline actual Black Friday sales, though for those looking to get some items off their holiday wish lists you may find decent savings." ***Read Next:* [Everything You Need to Know About the 2016 Holiday Shopping Season](https://money.com/2016-holiday-shopping-season-deals-trends-sales/)** Amazon isn't alone in its efforts to play the early Black Friday card. [Office Depot](http://www.officedepot.com/) and OfficeMax actually introduced early Black Friday sales starting on October 30. The promotions include a Lenova laptop for $299 (normally $499), a wireless virtual reality headset for $14.99 (normally $49.99), and select doorbuster deals with discounts of 50% or more on items like flash drives and office furniture. Likewise, Walmart has rolled out [early bird online specials](http://linksynergy.walmart.com/fs-bin/click?id=93xLBvPhAeE&subid=0&offerid=233310.1&type=10&tmpid=1082&RD_PARM1=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.walmart.com%252Fbrowse%252FChristmas-Gifts%252Fc2hlbGZfaWQ6NTkyMg&u1=MYamazonblackfridayDCNov) this week, though it's unclear if the deals are any different from the usual weekly sales promotions. Meanwhile, Best Buy and Target have already introduced [free no-minimum-purchase shipping](https://money.com/2016-holiday-shopping-season-deals-trends-sales/) offers for all purchases throughout the holidays, and they too have some early sales of note. For example, right now Target has a [buy two, get one free deal](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=93xLBvPhAeE&subid=0&offerid=462042.1&type=10&tmpid=19902&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.target.com%2Fc%2Fvideo-games%2F-%2FN-5xtg5Z55e69%3Flnk%3Dvideogames%2526type%3Dproducts&u1=MYamazonblackfridaynov) on video games and board games. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/black-friday-sales-early-deals-amazon-walmart-target/#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": "Black Friday Sales Are Already Here, With Amazon Leading the Pack" } ] }, { "@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-sales-early-deals-amazon-walmart-target/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/black-friday-sales-early-deals-amazon-walmart-target/", "name": "Black Friday Sales Are Already Here, With Amazon Leading the Pack", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-11-01T14:36:56.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/black-friday-sales-early-deals-amazon-walmart-target/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/black-friday-sales-early-deals-amazon-walmart-target/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T04:25:04.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Black Friday Sales Are Already Here, With Amazon Leading the Pack", "articleSection": "Shopping", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/11/160111_em_blackfriday.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1400, "caption": "160111_EM_BLACKFRIDAY" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-11-01T14:36:56.000Z", "description": "November 1 has come to mark the kick off of the holiday sales period, with early deals from Amazon, Office Depot, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and more.", "abstract": "November 1 has come to mark the kick off of the holiday sales period, with early deals from Amazon, Office Depot, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and more.", "@id": "https://money.com/black-friday-sales-early-deals-amazon-walmart-target/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T04:25:04.000Z", "wordCount": 339, "keywords": [ "Amazon", "deals", "holiday shopping", "online shopping", "pubdesk", "Shopping" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Shopping", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopping" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Black Friday (shopping)", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)" ] } ] } ] } ```