Black Friday is officially on, and many retailers have already been offering excellent deals for weeks ahead of the big event. The early discounts we’re seeing now mark the best prices we’ve seen all year on a ton of products across all categories, including tech, home, beauty, kitchen, and more.
Acting fast is key to snag products in limited supply, so we’ve rounded up answers to frequently asked questions to help you prepare for Black Friday 2021. Plus, you can find some of the best early deals available right now, below.
Get two MasterClass subscriptions for the price of one! Each subscription gets you access to all of MasterClass, so you can watch or sample unlimited celebrity and expert-led classes across a wide range of topics.
The latest MacBook Air released in late 2020 gains Apple’s new M1 processor, which brings impressively fast performance and long battery life, for under $1,000, making it the best Apple laptop overall.
LG’s C1 is one of the best 4K TVs you can buy. The OLED panel delivers incredible image quality with an infinite contrast ratio. This deal price matches the lowest we’ve seen so far.
Amazon launched its own smart TVs in fall 2021 and the Omni Series boasts features like hands-free Alexa support and video calling along with the latest Fire TV software.
The Microsoft Surface Pro 7 is sleek and portable with excellent performance for on-the-go use — making it still the most premium 2-in-1 tablet to date.
The Ninja Foodi 5-in-1 has five functions, including grill, bake, and dehydrate. Its temperatures range between 105°F to 500°F, giving it a lot of versatility in cooking options. Many of the parts are dishwasher safe for easier cleanup.
The renewed Vitamix Explorian is pre-owned, but every bit as good as new and comes with a 90-day Amazon Renewed Guarantee on top of a 3-year full warranty.
This bundle is a Target exclusive, and it includes an extra silicone egg rack and stainless steel steam rack for your pressure cooking needs. It’s only $60 right now — an excellent value for such a multifunctional kitchen appliance.
Our Place’s Always Pan is multi-functional nonstick pan that’s taken the internet by storm. It promises to replace eight different pieces of cookware in your kitchen. It can function as a steamer, saute pan, frying pan, and more.
The Bodum Chambord is about as timeless as French presses get. It’s unfussy and operates smoothly, and replacement parts (screens, braces, etc.) are affordable and easily attainable.
It’s no Dyson, but the Tineco Pure One S11 Spartan still has all of the convenience of a cordless stick vacuum for a lower price. Down to $220, it’s a solid deal for a barebones S11 model without the extra attachments.
The i3+ costs considerably more than your average robot vacuum, but it also does a lot more than the average robot vacuum. It develops personalized cleaning schedules and empties itself.
This is one of the cheapest smart vacuums we’ve seen to date – this far out from the official launch of Walmart’s sale. It’s tough to imagine this getting much cheaper during the deals event, so it might be wise to act quickly.
Typically selling for $500, right now the V10 Animal is discounted by $150, a low we’ve only seen for Amazon Prime Day. The V10 Animal is set apart from the rest of the V10s by its affinity for pet hair pickup.
The Nintendo eShop is the best place to shop for digital copies of Nintendo’s games. This gift card is the perfect gift or investment for anyone with a Nintendo Switch. Better still, Nintendo’s eShop offers several sales throughout the year. This means, patient shoppers can double their savings.
Typically, you can get a 3-month Game Pass subscription for $30. Right now, it’s only $20, a solid deal. This is the PC version, which gets you EA Play, exclusive member discounts, and unlimited to access to over 100 games.
The Fitbit Luxe is the company’s latest fitness band that comes with a sleek design and advanced health features like stress management and the ability to measure heart rate variation.
This isn’t just a mirror. It’s a cardio class, it’s a yoga studio, it’s a boxing ring, it’s your new personal trainer, and it’s so much more. For Cyber Monday, Mirror is on sale for $500 with the code “CYBERMONDAY20”
This bottle has all the hallmark features of a Hydro Flask water bottle — 12-24 hours of temperature retention, powder color coating that won’t chip or fade with time, a silicone twist top — with the very convenient wide mouth for easy pouring and drinking.
Winter is coming, and Kiehls’ Avocado Mask is here to provide your skin with hydration all season long. This nourishing treatment infuses your face with avocado and evening primrose oils, offering sumptuous moisture after just one use. Plus, it’s green tint is a total throwback. You can save 50% on a jar during Nordstrom’s Black Friday sale.
A liquid lip color that gives you a super matte look, but it’s so light it feels like a lip stain. The formula is highly pigmented, smudge-resistant, and comfortable on your lips.
There’s a reason why Anastasia Beverly Hills’ Brow Definer is a favorite among beauty editors. The angled applicator allows you to sketch on hair-like strokes, providing you with a natural-looking fill every single time. The Definer is on sale during Nordstrom’s Black Friday sale, and it’s one of the best prices we’ve seen for this cult-favorite product. You can shop it in every color for just $16.
This peacoat from Thread & Supply is a classic with a twist. The oversized buttons extend up the lapel to the collar, giving you the option to bundle up if necessary. And if you don’t love it in black, never fear — you can save 31% on this coat in black, camel, or light gray.
Made with the same level of support as its signature shapewear but with a little extra stretch, these leggings are designed to not only make you look great but feel great, too.
Urban Decay’s cult-favorite mascara lifts and adds volume with one simple swipe — and it never, ever clumps. You can score a full-sized tube for just $10 during Nordstrom’s Black Friday sale. That’s a saving of 60% off the regular price.
Black Friday is an annual sales event that traditionally happens at the end of November, marking the beginning of the holiday shopping season. The savings event is one of the biggest shopping holidays of the year — sales are so high that the day can push a retailer into “the black,” or solvency.
We’ve been seeing noteworthy price drops for the entire month of November, with all-time lows cropping up more and more as the day gets closer.
When is Black Friday 2021?
Black Friday is always the Friday after Thanksgiving. This year, Black Friday falls on November 26. However, we’ve already seen Black Friday-caliber deals pop up in the weeks leading up to the big day.
Retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy have already kicked off their Black Friday sales, days before the holiday itself.
What time does Black Friday start?
Technically speaking, Black Friday starts at 12:00 a.m. local time on November 26 for online retailers. However, Black Friday sales start whenever each retailer decides their deals will go live.
A handful of retailers, like Walmart and Amazon, have already begun offering deals for the event.
What time do stores open on Black Friday?
Here are the opening times for the major retailers we’re tracking throughout Black Friday. Keep in mind can shop all the retailers below, plus others like Amazon, around the clock online.
Don’t be fooled by the name that suggests Black Friday is a single day. It’s most definitely not. It’s more like a shopping season that begins in early November.
What should you buy on Black Friday?
Since it falls a few weeks before the gift-giving season, Black Friday provides excellent opportunities to buy and save on all your holiday gifts before the last-minute rush.
It’s nearly guaranteed that you’ll get great value for your money on certain products during Black Friday — but some items tend to see better discounts at other times of the year. If you go in knowing what you’re looking for, you’re less likely to be ripped off by a fancy-looking coupon or to spend money on products you don’t need.
Shoppers can expect tons of great deals — including so-called “doorbusters” — online before and early on in Black Friday. During the event, prices will drop to all-time lows, often beating out prices we see over the course of the year. The sale covers every product category: tech, home and kitchen, fashion, and smart home.
This Black Friday, shoppers should expect to see similar offers to the ones we saw on Amazon Prime Day, except more wide-ranging.
We recommend focusing on the following product categories if you want the best deals:
Historically, Black Friday has been a great time to purchase big-ticket electronics — especially larger TVs. Whether you’re looking for a top-of-the-line Samsung set or LG OLED, or a budget-friendly TCL or Hisense model, Black Friday will likely deliver several deals.
Much like Amazon Prime Day, we saw tons of discounts on smart home products last Black Friday. Amazon Echo products dropped to their lowest prices ever, plus we saw several discounts and bundles on Google’s recently released products.
This Black Friday we expect to see discounts on the latest Xbox and Playstation games. While we didn’t see any markdowns on new consoles last year, we did see a few bundles crop up and we expect more of them in 2021 if retailers are able to secure stock.
If you’re looking for a kitchen upgrade, Black Friday is a great time to shop. We saw big discounts on Instant Pot pressure cookers, KitchenAid appliances, pots and pans, plus everything else you’ll want for the upcoming holiday season.
Of course, the deals found during Black Friday are incredibly wide-ranging. There have also been several deals on diapers, toilet paper, and other household essentials.
For those unfamiliar, Cyber Monday traditionally comes three days after Black Friday, on Monday. However, we’ve seen Black Friday and Cyber Monday slowly merge and expand to a weeklong, or even a month-long affair. Different products receive better discounts on each day, and the deals that each retailer offers will vary.
A good rule of thumb to follow: If you think you see a good deal, (e.g., one we recommend) create the order as soon as possible. While you can always cancel or return a product, it’s impossible to take advantage of an inactive, or expired deal.
Suppose you purchase a discounted product during Black Friday and see a more significant markdown at another retailer come Cyber Monday. Don’t sweat it.
You can ask the original storefront to match the price (some automatically refund you the difference), or you can return or cancel the order, then place a new order with a better price. Some orders won’t even ship during the weekend, which makes it easy to cancel orders.
For those who can shop in-person during Black Friday, we’ve found that it’s better to shop on Black Friday in these situations:
For expensive products
For major stores
For this year’s products
What stores have Black Friday deals?
Outside of a few notable exceptions like REI, nearly every major retailer and direct-to-consumer company is offering markdowns during the event. We’ve seen deals from Walmart, Best Buy, Dell, Amazon, Adorama, Lowe’s, The Home Depot, and more.
As we do every Black Friday, we will be sifting through all of the offers and rounding up the best deals from your favorite retailers.
Last year, we rounded up the best Black Friday deals we could find. Some of the best deals we found discounted many products over 50% with hundreds of dollars in savings. Here are some of the best markdowns we saw last year.
We only choose products that meet our high standard of coverage and that we’ve either used ourselves or researched carefully.
We’ll compare the prices among top retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart and include only the deals that are better than all others offered (not including promotional discounts that come from using certain credit cards).
All deals will be at least 20% off, with the occasional exception for products that are rarely discounted or provide an outsize value.
