This morning Amazon took the wraps off quite a few new smart devices. Many of these devices will be discounted during Amazon's upcoming Prime Big Deal Days, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.
Among these new devices is the all-new Echo Show 8 with edge-to-edge glass, a built-in smart home hub and improved audio with spatial audio. The new Echo Hub is a smart home control panel with an 8" display that works with over 140,000 connected devices. The new generation Fire TV Stick Max features WiFi 6E and a new Ambient Experience to turn your TV into a smart display with over 2,000 pieces of artwork.
The new Fire TV Soundbar featured Dolby Audio and DTS Virtual:X. Amazon also unveiled the Echo Pop Kids smart speaker, the 3rd generation Echo Show 5, the 3rd generation Echo Frames and new Ring cameras. Learn about all the new products announced today on this dedicated page.
Best Buy is kicking off their holiday sales on October 1st this year and have announced several promotions taking place during October. The entire month will be Member Exclusive Month with exclusive deals for Plus and Total members. Members who spend $500 during October will get a $50 reward to use in December.
Best Buy states that Plus and Total members will also get early access to Best Buy's Black Friday deals from October 27th through the 29th, which likely means Best Buy will open up Black Friday deals to non-members on October 30th this year.
Best Buy will also have a 2-day flash sale on October 10th and 11th to compete with Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days. Also look for special Microsoft, Samsung and gaming sales taking place during October. Get the details in Best Buy's announcement.
Walmart has announced that they will have a 4-day Holiday Kickoff Sale starting at 7pm ET on Monday, October 9th and running through Thursday the 12th. The sale is obviously meant to compete with Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days which takes place on the 10th and 11th of October.
Walmart has given a sneak peek of some of the deals that will be available including the Apple Watch SE 1st Gen for $149, the Sony 75" X90K 4K TV for $998, the Mega Barbie The Movie Dreamhouse for $139 and Crocs Crocband Clogs for $29.99.
Target issued a press release this morning with several announcements about their upcoming Q4 and holiday plans. First, Target will have another Target Circle Week sale from Sunday October 1st through Saturday the 7th with savings of up to 40% for Target Circle members.
Target also says that they will bring back their Deal of the Day program on October 1st with deep daily discounts exclusively for Circle members. The Deal of the Day program will run through Christmas Eve. Read the full press release including Target's promises to make gift giving more affordable here.
Amazon has released their annual Toys We Love list of over 200 of the year's hottest toys and games for the upcoming holiday season. You can check out the full list here and read Amazon's press release announcing the list here.
This year's list represents the "most innovative and delightful offerings" from top brands such as Disney, LEGO, Mattel, Crayola, Squishmallows and more. Nearly all of the toys on the list can be ordered now, many at sale prices, on Amazon.com.
This morning Amazon announced that their upcoming Prime Big Deal Days sale will take place on October 10th and 11th this year. You can read the full press release here to find out all the details and of course we'll be covering the sale here on GottaDEAL.
Amazon says you'll find deals on Dyson, Sony, Barbie, Shark Ninja, iRobot, LG, Peloton and many more top brands. As they did during Prime Day, they have some invite-only deals you can request access to.
Kohl's kicked off the holiday season this morning by revealing their Top 20 Toys list, all of which are already available in Kohl's stores and on Kohls.com. Brands included are Squishmallows, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Pokemon, Magic Mixes and more.
Kohl's also announced that they are bringing back Bricktober on October 1st. You'll find weekly deals on select LEGO sets and a free LEGO gift when you spend $30 or more on LEGO sets in store only.
We're really proud of our Black Friday message boards on the forum. They are a great place to talk about Black Friday with others who are just as crazy about Black Friday as you are. This year with the situation again being very fluid, the forums should be especially interesting to follow along with.
Every year we see a lot of lurkers on the boards, and we want to encourage you to sign up and post by giving away a brand new PlayStation 5 just for talking Black Friday. See this thread for details and if you don't have a forum account, get one here.
Walmart has released their annual list of Top Toys for the holiday season. Their list features dozens (55 to be exact) of toys which were tested and selected by kids and Walmart's toy buyers.
The list spotlights toys based on popular characters as well as gadgets for kids, dolls, outdoor toys, building block sets and screen-free indoor entertainment toys. This year more than 25 of the toys on the list are under $25 to help you save money.
Over half of the toys are exclusive to Walmart this year, and most are available for ordering now on Walmart.com with free shipping on orders of $35 or more, or free in-store or curbside pickup.
Last week Amazon announced that they will be having another big sale this October as a lead-up to their Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Prime Big Deal Days will take place in October however no dates have been disclosed yet. Last year Amazon's big October sale took place on October 11th and 12th.
The sale will take place across 19 countries that Amazon does business in and will feature thousands of deals exclusively for Prime members, similar to their annual Prime Day sale. Of course we'll have comprehensive coverage of this sale so stay tuned as October and Q4 gets closer.
Today marks the 100 day milestone in the countdown to Black Friday 2023, whatever that day will mean this year. There's still a lot of uncertainty when it comes to retailers' holiday plans. Aside from a few stores again announcing Thanksgiving closings, we have very little insight into their plans.
If you'd like to start discussing what Black Friday and holiday shopping might look like this year, our Black Friday message board is already open. We're discussing our thoughts on what the deals will look like and much more. You can also join is on our Discord server for even more chatting.
Best Buy has launched their new memberships. The basic membership includes free shipping on all orders. My Best Buy Plus costs $49.99 per year and includes free 2-day shipping, member-only deals, early access to sales and more. My Best Buy Total costs $179.99 per year and gets you 24/7 Geek Squad support and other perks of dubious value.
Overstock.com announced that they have acquired Bed Bath & Beyond's brand and other intellectual property and intend to rebrand Overstock.com to Bed Bath & Beyond over the coming weeks.
Overstock's new web address will be bedbathandbeyond.com and their rewards program will change from Club O to Welcome Rewards, which was the name of Bed Bath & Beyond's rewards program before they went out of business.
Today marks the halfway point of the countdown to Black Friday 2023. We're exactly 6 months away from November 24th which is the date Black Friday falls on this year.
Of course Black Friday itself has become much less important in recent years as sales are starting earlier and are spread over a longer period. While you wait, here's an article with some general tips for scoring holiday shopping deals.
We'll be be "officially" starting our Black Friday and holiday shopping coverage in the fall but we'll continue to post any relevant updates here in the meantime.
Best Buy has revamped their membership program today by adding a a new mid-level tier. The base My Best Buy tier in unchanged and still gets you free shipping with no minimum purchase.
The new My Best Buy Plus membership costs $49.99 per year and gets you early access to sales, exclusive deals, free 2-day shipping and an extended return period. Finally, the My Best Buy Total is $179.99 per year and is a renamed version of their existing TotalTech membership.
Today the NFL and Amazon announced that the opponents for the first ever Black Friday NFL game on Amazon's Prime Video streaming platform will be the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins. The game will take place at 3pm EST on November 24th.
We knew a few months ago that there would be a game on Black Friday but the opponents were not revealed until today. Amazon will give everyone free access to this game, even if you don't have a Prime membership. We expect plenty of crossover promotion of Amazon's Black Friday deals during the broadcast.
It's Christmas in... April? as we've just posted the 72-page Hallmark Dream Book 2023 Catalog. This catalog features their lineup of Keepsake ornaments. This is Hallmark's 50th Anniversary of their Keepsake ornaments so look for some special ornaments to commemorate that milestone.
Most of the ornaments in the catalog are available starting in either July or October on Hallmark.com - see the individual ornament in the catalog as it will tell you when it will be going on sale. Some of the Keepsake ornaments will only be available at physical Hallmark stores as well.
New this year, we suggest you follow our new TikTok account. We plan on using this account to post short video updates about hot deals, new sales, leaked Black Friday ads, store stock status and much more. Plus exclusive contents!
It's just another way you can find out when we post new important site updates. Of course the best way to learn about new updates to the site is with our mailing list. Also be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook and join our Discord server.
We received many requests over the years from our visitors who wanted to be able to browse older Black Friday ads from previous years. To answer those requests, we created the Black Friday Archive. The site is a great place to get your Black Friday fix during the "offseason".
This is a simple easy-to-use site that lets you browse our complete archive of past Black Friday sale ads. The Black Friday Archive currently goes back to 2004 and has over 1,300 historical ads. Want even more? Our forum has 19 years worth of archived Black Friday discussion.
In case you are unaware, we have a GottaDEAL Discord server for those of you who'd like to chat in real-time about Black Friday and anything else with other GottaDEAL visitors and forum members. You can access the server via this invite link and we hope to see many of you in the chat.
For those who are unfamiliar with Discord, it is a free text, voice and video chat service. You can access it via their apps or through a traditional web browser. Once you sign up for an account you can join the GD server using the special invite link.
As we do every year around this time, we have officially opened up our main Black Friday message board for this year. You can check out all the early Black Friday discussion here.
You can start discussing your predictions for this year, any Black Friday news that comes up and much more. Also be on the lookout for our first contests of the year as well. See you there!
Join over 120,000 other GottaDEAL visitors by liking our Facebook page. We've been using the Facebook page as another way to find out about some of the latest updates we've posted including new posted ads, online sales going live and much more.
We also have Facebook-exclusive contests where you can win our famous Black Friday t-shirts, gift cards and more prizes. You can also use Facebook as another way to contact us. We also recommend you follow us on Twitter and Instagram and join our fun Discord server.
While you may already be subscribed to our Black Friday newsletter, we also have our Instant Deal Alerts mailing list which you can learn more about and sign up for on this page. The Instant Deal Alerts let you know about Black-Friday level deals that pop up during the rest of the year.
These newsletters are sent out on an as-needed basis so during the slower time of the year you might only hear from us once or twice per month. We send them out when there are enough very hot deals happening at one time to warrant letting you know. Subscribe for free right here.
For those of you on Twitter, we've got two options for you this year. As always, @GottaDEAL is our year-round account. We'll post great online deals along with important Black Friday updates.
You can also follow @BlackFridayNews which is an automated account that will post all Black Friday site updates and all new message board threads. All Black Friday news, all the time.
One of the best ways to maximize your savings during Black Friday season and all year long is to make sure you have a good cash-back credit card. Use these credit cards for your purchases and you will earn additional cash back beyond the usual big Black Friday savings found each year.
Many of these cards have big signup bonuses if you spend a certain amount in the first few months with the card, so sign up for any of these cards today and you can use your holiday spending to meet these bonus goals easily. Check out GottaCreditCard for an list of our current favorites.
This year we invite you to follow GottaDEAL on Instagram. We plan on using our Instagram account for some fun things this year including exclusive contests, as well as sharing the latest news and rumors about whatever Black Friday ends up looking like this year.
It's also another way you can find out when we post new leaked ads, catalogs and more. Of course the best way to learn about new updates to the site is with our mailing list. Also be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook and join our Discord server to chat with other GDers.
While you have a few months to pass the time until the sales start, why not do some reading about the history of these big days? First, check out the history of Black Friday and learn about the birth of Black Friday as a term in Philadelphia.
Next, the history of Cyber Monday is more recent with early years being known for lackluster sales. The history of Amazon's Prime Day is also more contemporary and after a few early rocky years it has become a big sale period each year.
Finally, as this is GottaDEAL's 20th year of existence, check out a brief history of GottaDEAL and join us as we celebrate two decades of deals over the next year. We're proud to be the oldest independent deal site still around.
