Black Friday Doorbusters Keep Growing as Retailers Vie to Outdo Rivals
Black Friday has quickly turned into Black Week as retailers are hoping to entice discount-hungry shoppers to make even-earlier holiday purchases. By 10 a.m. Tuesday, Walmart had sold out of a $199 PS3 bundle that went on sale that day combining a 160GB console, two games -- Little Big Planet 2 and Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One -- and a PlayStation Plus 30-day membership.
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Target announced 11 additional doorbuster items Tuesday, eight of which were LCD TVs. Among the Target deals are a Polaroid 22-inch 60Hz 1080p LED-based LCD TV ($149), a Westinghouse 32-inch 720p LCD TV for $229, a Samsung 40-inch LED-based 1080p LCD TV ($499) and an Element 55-inch 120Hz 1080p LCD TV ($699). Target is also pushing a Sony Blu-ray player with built-in Wi-Fi for $109. Some products were only available in stores, according to the Target ad.
Even Apple hinted it was entering the deal spirit on Friday with an email touting Black Friday deals during a “special one-day shopping event” in stores and online. The company didn’t provide details and a link sent shoppers to the current, non-sale Apple website.
Comparison-shopping website Retrevo.com published a list of Black Friday deals and duds Tuesday. Among the “deals” listed were a Sharp 42-inch 1080p LCD TV for $199 and a 60-inch Aquos for $799 at Best Buy, a Westinghouse 46-inch LED-lit LCD TV for $298 at Target, and a Samsung 55-inch LED LCD TV at Sears for $1,099. Laptop deals, according to Retrevo, include an HP Pavilion 15-inch laptop with 4GB RAM and 500GB hard drive for $399, a Lenovo 15-inch laptop with AMD processor and 2GB memory for $179, and a Toshiba 15-inch laptop with 6GB RAM and 500 GB hard drive for $399. Tablet deals are scarce, but Retrevo rounded up the 10-inch Asus Transformer at Best Buy for $249 and the Android-based Toshiba Thrive, marked down to $279 at Best Buy after hitting the market at $500.
"Dud deals,” are so labeled by Retrevo largely because of better deals found elsewhere, we found. “Dud” promotions include the Panasonic TC-P50S30 50-inch plasma TV, advertised by Sears for $699 but for $100 less at Best Buy on Black Friday, Retrevo said. Toshiba’s $39 connected Blu-ray player -- available at Best Buy and hhgregg to name two -- requires a $49 Wi-Fi adapter for Internet access, so Retrevo suggested a Sony Wi-Fi Blu-ray player for $79-$109 instead. The Magnavox Blu-ray player “gets trotted out every year on Black Friday,” Retrevo said, adding, “We just think there are some better players to consider.” Despite being a “well-designed” 7-inch tablet, RIM Playbook lacks app support, and that’s behind Retrevo’s warning to steer clear of the $199 tablet that’s selling for “a lot less than originally intended.” A $100 price cut wasn’t enough for Retrevo to plug the Sony DCR-SX85 camcorder that will sell for $149 on Black Friday. “It has 16GB of flash memory and offers a long 60x optical zoom, but it doesn’t shoot HD video,” Retrevo said.