5 Things NOT to Buy on Black Friday

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Not everything sees its best deals of the year during Black Friday. This year, don’t waste your money on things like furniture, gift cards, and tools.Make no mistake: Black Friday will be full of killer deals. But while stellar sales on wine and carsmay surprise and delight you, there are some items that only see minor discounts — or no discounts at all. Black Friday sales are time-sensitive, so wasting precious minutes looking for a deal that may not appear could make you miss a killer door-buster. In the interest of keeping you on track, we’ve rounded up 11 product categories that consistently under-perform during Black Friday.

Whether it’s furniture deals you should have grabbed in the summer or gift cards that’ll be cheaper in December, read on to discover the items that Black Friday forgot.

Chocolates & Flowers

It is perhaps unsurprising that gifts like chocolates and flowers don’t see much in the way of deals during Black Friday. The perishable nature of these treats makes them better suited for purchase close to a gift-giving holiday. While we did see a small spike in these deals during the 2013 Black Friday season, overall November 2013 saw the fewest offers in this category all year. Instead, wait to buy your flowers and chocolates closer to the biggest romantic gifting days of the year — Christmas and Valentine’s Day.

Home & Patio Furniture

It’s rare for a product category to go almost completely ignored on Black Friday, but such is the case with furniture. In fact, many high-end furniture shops don’t even hold Black Friday sales. This is because most retailers heavily discount these items in the warmer months, with home furniture seeing a huge spike in deals in July and August, and patio furniture clearance sales dominating in August and September.

Tools

Like several other entries on this list, tools won’t be totally skippable on Black Friday. After all, Black Friday is still the best time all year to score really cheap hand tools. However, as we mentioned in our November buying guide, the month of December actually has the edge in tool sales. Last year, we listed 16% more tool offers in December than in November.

High-End Laptops

The Black Friday season makes November the greatest month of the year for purchasing a tablet … unless you’re in the business sector for a genuine powerhouse. Superior machines that brag an effective CPU like Intel’s Core i7 models really see better costs amid the mid year back-to-class deals. July and September have a tendency to be the champion months for these apparatuses, with arrangements that are 9% less expensive (about $50 all things considered) than significantly November’s best arrangements.

Winter Gear

Here’s a category that actually sees a lot of discounts during Black Friday, but is nevertheless worth passing up. November is a winter month, so winter clothing is obviously in-stock everywhere at this time. As we noted previously, excellent site wide coupons will lead to some serious discounts on all kinds of apparel, including in-season coats, boots, and more. However, you’ll see the best deals on these items during winter clearance sales in January through March.

Black Friday Guide

If you love Fall, October, and Halloween, then TheBlackFriday.Deals is for you. We’ve found thousands of things to do in America from Labor Day to Thanksgiving, including Apple Orchards, Festivals, Oktoberfests, Corn Mazes, Haunted Houses, Ghost Tours, and Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Day: Most Black Friday deals tend to go live online on Thanksgiving day (many major retailers open their doors in the afternoon hours where, in some cases, their are lines to get in around the block). This year Thanksgiving is on Thursday, November 26, 2020; always on the fourth Thursday in the month of November. You’ll find the entire list of brands, stores and products that we are tracking this year on this page.

Black Friday: We all know that’s the day after Thanksgiving (that means it falls on November 27, 2020, this year). That’s probably confusing for the folks in Europe and Asia as the date keeps changing from year to year, but it makes perfect sense to us!

Cyber Monday: This is the Monday after the long Thanksgiving weekend where it gets difficult to get back to work after eating pounds of turkey, gravy, stuffing, and potatoes (and in some cases spending a bit too much “quality time” with family). This year that falls on November 30, 2020. Most of us end up shopping all the online deals this day, making it the biggest e-commerce spending day of the year in the United States (a total of $9.4 billion spent on Cyber Monday alone in 2019 according to Forbes. Hard to imagine – right?!).

Giving Tuesday: With all the shopping holidays this season, one day is put aside to give back to the community. This is the day after Cyber Monday, the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. This year that’s on December 1, 2020. We encourage you to take a moment and give back to the community. You can either volunteer or give a portion of what you saved on Black Friday to one of the many charities that need your help. Little by little, every dollar counts. Let’s make this would a better place for all.

Green Monday: A term first coined by eBay to describe their best sales day in December, this is the 2nd Monday of December (this year it falls on December 14, 2020). The term seems to be catching on because we see more and more stores running “Green Monday” sales.

After Christmas Sales: This is my favorite time to shop because I can finally shop for… wait for it… me! A break from running around trying to juggle hunting for gifts for your significant other, kids, parents, grandparents, nieces, nephews, etc., etc., while preparing holiday meal plans, travel arrangements, and still having to go to work. Most sales start on December 26th and will likely run into the first few days of the new year, 2021. Many of the discounts we’ll see are usually similar to, or in some cases better than, those on Black Friday. You’ll see stores liquidate excess holiday inventory (a great time to stock up on holiday decor, like Christmas or Hanukkah ornaments) as well as regular things like home furniture, electronics, and apparel.