Not All Black Friday Sales Are Sales

Everyone seems to get geared up for Black Friday every year.  Personally, I’m more a fan of Cyber Monday since I don’t like standing in line.  But, the opening time for Black Friday has continued to get pushed back over the years to the point that it’s no longer just Friday.  Walmart and Target opened up Thanksgiving night (at 8pm and 9pm respectively), and I’m sure they’re not the only ones.

My wife pointed out some sale items for the kids in the Walmart flier (a store I’m really not a fan of).  I flirted with the idea of going to pick up a few things.  But, that disappeared pretty quickly, especially when I realized some of the deals weren’t really that great.  Take Walmart’s Black Friday sale, for example.  They were advertising a 16GB iPad 2 with wifi for $399, plus a $75 Walmart gift card for Thursday night only (there’s now another offer of $379 with no gift card listed in the deal section).

But, why buy that when you could buy it from Apple’s refurb store for $319?  Now, some might say, “It’s a refurb.”  I’ve bought two new Apple products in the last few years, with everything else (measuring in the dozens for company purposes) being refurbished items.  They come in the same box with the same warranty.  They’re essentially things people bought then returned within the first two weeks taking advantage of Apple’s generous return policy.  And, if you’re truly scared of refurbs, well Apple will sell you the same iPad brand new for $368 ($11 cheaper then Walmart).

Now, compare Target’s Black Friday deals.  They’re sporting a 16GB iPod touch (4th gen) for $195 plus you get a $40 Target gift card.  Or, you can buy that product brand new on the Apple site today for $138.  The kicker here is the normal price is $149.  So, I’m not sure if this is an indicator of how good (or bad) the sales are this year.  Or, maybe I picked two products that Walmart and Target couldn’t get deals on.

Needless to say, it reinforces my belief that I’m doing just fine sitting here at home instead of standing in line somewhere today.  I’ll continue to hunt for deals online for things on various Christmas lists, but I’ll leave the standing in line to someone else.