By ,
Published January 13, 2015
Walmart, often seen as a bellwether for Black Friday pricing, is promising to make this year's post-Thanksgiving shopping extravaganza its biggest ever. It's using aggressive promotional sales and rollback prices—backed by a huge marketing blitz—to drive traffic to its stores. And electronics have always played a big part in Walmart's Black Friday plans.
So what does that mean for you?
This year's Black Friday is likely to be a great one for holiday shoppers looking for bargains. That's because Walmart's competitors—mass merchants such as Target and Kmart, and specialty electronics dealers such as Best Buy—will have to follow suit.
Walmart's Black Friday ad hasn't yet been released—or even leaked—so we're probably still a few weeks away from knowing what kind of doorbuster deals and specials will be offered. If you'll be looking for a great electronics deals, our advice is to check out the Walmart Black Friday circulars, but then wait until some of Walmart's competitors release their ads to see how they react.
Check our TV buying guide and Ratings before you buy.
Also, remember that circulars have to be printed several weeks before they actually appear, so you should also check each retailers' website for last-minute deals and specials offered in reaction to competitors' pricing.
In the coming weeks, we'lll be offering a complete Black Friday shopping guide to help you navigate all the different ads and offers to get the best deal. But in the meantime, here's a quick tip as you start to look through all the Black Friday ads: Distinguish between the so-called doorbuster specials designed to get people into stores—usually offered during very limited times and in very limited quantites—and lowest-of-the-year-prices on more widely available gear. Typically only those with the fortitude to get up at crazy hours are able to get the doorbuster specials, and often they're on no-name brands or models that haven't performed especially well in our Ratings.
One of the exceptions to that rule last year, though, was Walmart. For Black Friday last year, the retailer guaranteed the availability of three of its doorbuster specials—including a low-priced 32-inch TV from Emerson TV and a deal on Apple's iPad 2—for customers in line at the stores between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m.
We expect to see new low prices for many electronic items this year, especially TVs. So keep checking back for all of our Black Friday news, advice, and top picks as we get closer to the shopping holiday.
—James K. Willcox
Copyright © 2005-2013 Consumers Union of U.S., Inc. No reproduction, in whole or in part, without written permission. Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this site.
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/walmart-promises-a-blockbuster-black-friday