If your area is anything like mine, local merchants are already tossing Halloween and fall-inspired décor off the shelves in favor of Christmas-flavored items. It almost makes you wonder if November still exists. Oh, but November does still exist — especially for the deal shopper. Those preemptive cues from such retailers remind me that the most anticipated shopping season of the year — Black Friday Weekend — is merely weeks away.
Recently, we took a look at the top 10 most deal-friendly online retailers from the past year, and now it's time to delve a little deeper. As we approach Black Friday weekend, that 5-day period that spawns a bevy of best-ever discounts from a variety of outlets, which five online merchants will offer the greatest number of top-dollar deals?
The Breakdown
Throughout the year, the dealnews staff will label the site's best deals as Editors' Choice, and chances are high that one (or several) of us have purchased these deals ourselves. To see an item or sale marked "Editors' Choice" on Black Friday or Cyber Monday certainly deems it special.
Therefore, in creating our list, we decided the top Black Friday vendors should not be judged based on the volume of all deals, but rather, which sites offered the largest number of Editors' Choice-caliber bargains. Last year during the Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday period, we posted 1,650 deals, and 537 were tagged Editors' Choice — that's roughly one-third of all deals posted that weekend!
It should be noted that several such deals were sold out almost as soon as they hit the site. (Yes, folks, they were that hot.) Others, unfortunately, were deemed invalid due to snafus on behalf of the retailer. (Staples, for instance, had eight Editors' Choice-level deals that were reneged due to a coupon glitch; we weren't very pleased with how they handled the situation.)
But now, without further ado...
The Top Five Online Merchants for the Best Deals During Black Friday Weekend
- Amazon: 132 Editors' Choice Deals
(40% of Amazon's total Black Friday Weekend deals)
Surprised? The leader of our year-long deals list also takes the top spot here. The super-popular online retailer offered a grand total of 326 deals during the 5-day weekend, several of which were the ever-so-popular (and literally as fast as) Lightning Deals. (A whopping 49 Editors' Choice deals were posted on Black Friday alone.)
Among the most popular offerings were $2 MP3 album downloads (which even included Lady Gaga's latest release), a Nintendo DS Lite handheld console for $80 (and this was before Nintendo's retail price dropped to $100), and a Canon EOS Rebel T2i 18MP DSLR 2-lens bundle with additional accessories for just $799.
- Best Buy: 33 Editors' Choice Deals
(49% of Best Buy's total Black Friday Weekend deals)
The Yellow Tag's Black Friday Weekend offerings don't quite total one-third of Amazon's total listings, but nearly half of Best Buy's deals were tagged with dealnews' top honor. Meanwhile, Best Buy appeared to take the "Early Bird" approach, as a majority of its Editors' Choice deals were published on Thanksgiving. (By comparison, only three such deals appeared on dealnews on Black Friday.)
Some of Best Buy's best included an all-time low for a Samsung 46" 1080p LCD HDTV / Blu-ray player bundle and a Barnes & Noble nook for $100 via in-store pickup (a best-ever price at the time). Best Buy's laptop offerings were especially notable, one example being a Samsung Core i3 2.13GHz 14" Blu-ray Laptop for $450.
- newegg: 31 Editors' Choice Deals
(27% of newegg's total Black Friday deals)
The renowned electronics retailer, which was absent on our previous list, ranks third in terms of Editors' Choice deals, nipping at Best Buy's heels with 31 such offerings. newegg came on strong on Black Friday with 12 Editors' Choice listings, while six were featured on Cyber Monday.
For the consumer who doesn't shy away from rebates, newegg had some particularly compelling offers. Some of the most notable deals from the 'egg included a Patriot 16GB microSDHC card ($9 after a $10 rebate — we still haven't seen such a card for less), an HP OfficeJet 4500 Wireless All-In-One Printer for $50 (which tied OfficeMax's Black Friday deal for the non-wireless version), and a Zalmon Athlon 3GHz Quad-Core HTPC Barebones Kit for $523 after a combined $35 in rebates (which was half off the best price available elsewhere).
- Kohl's: 26 Editors' Choice Deals
(55% of Kohl's total Black Friday Weekend deals)
Kohl's boasted the best "Editors' Choice to total deal" ratio than any other merchant. (This was the case with our last list, too.) Stackable sitewide coupons for 20% off and free shipping yielded many all-time lows for apparel and housewares. (And like newegg, Kohl's was also rebate-happy.)
For example, Kohl's had a Rival 5-quart crockpot for just $6 shipped after coupons and rebate, the best we've seen for any such crockpot by $10. Also available was a 5-piece luggage set for $28 after applicable discounts (although, even without the rebate, it still would have been an all-time low for a 5-piece luggage set by a buck). The cheapest iRobot Roomba vacuum we've ever seen was courtesy of the Kohl's Black Friday sale, which offered the 400 model for just $80 (sans rebate).
- Dell Home: 25 Editors' Choice Deals
(43% of Dell's total Black Friday Weekend deals)
Dell's consumer storefront boasted an admirable amount of Editors' Choice listings throughout Black Friday Weekend. And no, they weren't limited to laptops and desktops. Dell Home provided significant price lows on other coveted consumer electronics, such as HDTVs, cameras, and gaming consoles. Most of Dell's Editors' Choice deals came on Cyber Monday (10), more than any other day.
Examples of Dell Home's best deals were a Nintendo Wii Limited Edition Red Console for $160 (which undercut Amazon's offer by $40), an all-time low for a Dell 20" LED-backlit LCD monitor (at $85; we've since seen other brands for slightly less), and a Vizio 55" 1080p LCD HDTV for $888 (a then-low for any name-brand TV of that class). Computers weren't forgotten, however, as Dell offered some significant markdowns on its systems (including a refurbished Alienware M11x Core 2 Duo 1.3GHz 12" Laptop for $499).
...Walmart, the second vendor on our year-long list? The retailer boasted 20 Editors' Choice deals on Black Friday Weekend, most of which were HDTVs. (We saw several best-ever prices for lesser-known brands, such as Element and Proscan.) Meanwhile, Sears, which ranked third on our last list, had nine tagged deals (which included men's jeans for $10 before shipping).
Once Again, Amazon Reigns Supreme
With the most number of Editors' Choice deals, Amazon ranks No. 1 on another of our deal-friendly lists. However, will that remain the case this upcoming holiday season? Perhaps another retailer — maybe even one that failed to make last year's cut — will provide a stellar combination of coupons and existing markdowns that will make us editors glad (if not a tad worried) that we've memorized our credit card information.
If you don't know what type of stellar deals you can expect this Black Friday Weekend, give our 2011 Black Friday Predictions a glance.
Top photo courtesy Bonnet Creek Blog
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