Brad

You may remember that we didn't give away t-shirts last year due to some unforeseen events that took up much of my time. This year we will be giving away some fun t-shirts on a limited basis. Introducing this year's Black Friday t-shirt: This year's shirt pokes fun at the common sentiment that Black Friday has passed it's usefulness and has nods to some of the stores we've lost along the way since GottaDEAL first started covering Black Friday. The shirts will be given away in our traditional forum contests so be on the lookout for the first contest in the next week or two but know that they will be extremely limited compared to past years, so be sure to enter every contest that pops up if you want the best chance of winning one.

Shop: https://www.walmart.com/deals Announcement & preview of deals: https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2024/09/19/walmart-unveils-its-holiday-plans-with-early-shopping-deals-and-affordable-meals Feel free to use this thread to discuss the sale, deals you find during the sale & anything else related.

Shop: https://www.amazon.com Announcement: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-prime-big-deal-days-faq Feel free to use this thread to discuss the sale, any deals you find leading up to and during the event and whatever else.

Shop the list: https://amzn.to/4gcZzOh Press release: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-toys-we-love-list-holidays-2024

Big Lots files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, plans to be sold to private equity firm https://apnews.com/article/big-lots-bankruptcy-retail-consumer-4713b5436d17c7838a45fe5cd5c3fe8b

Also, there will be t-shirts given away this year. Not quite as many as past years but I've got a few dozen here and they are kinda fun this year... more details soon.

Shop the toys: https://www.walmart.com/i/toy-shop-results/category/top-toys Press release: https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2024/09/09/walmart-unwraps-the-holiday-season-with-2024-top-toys-list-and-new-exclusive-barbie-world-collection

DISCUSS BLACK FRIDAY & WIN 1 OF 2 APPLE IPADS! Time for our annual forum contest. We covered our first Black Friday here on GottaDEAL two decades ago, so we've got two prizes this year instead of one! Here's how it works: Through Monday, December 9, 2024 at 11:59:59pm EST, you'll earn one entry into the contest every time you post in one of the Black Friday and holiday shopping-related forums including this main Black Friday Discussion forum and the Sale & Ad Discussion sub-forum. As usual we're not going to require your posts to be a certain length to qualify or anything like that - we just want a lot of great discussion. We know there are times when a one-word reply is fine. All posts in nearly all threads in these forums will count, including other contest threads. However, posts in the GD Prize Club threads will not count. So create interesting threads, reply to other members' questions, give your opinions on everything that is being discussed. This is a discussion board - let's have some interesting discussion here! On Tuesday, December 10, 2024 we will randomly select two lucky winners from all eligible entries and you will each win a brand new Apple iPad 9th Generation Tablet. Prize must be claimed by replying to the winner notification PM here on the forum by January 31, 2025 or prize will be forfeited. And as a benefit to those who were here early this year, all the posts in the forums up until now (again, aside from the prize club thread) will also count towards this contest. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me and I'll be happy to answer them.

Sent everyone still eligible for a prize a message requesting your address so be sure to reply to that when you get a chance.

With so many different sales happening throughout October, November and December it can be a little overwhelming to keep track of everything. We have several ways to stay updated with all the new ads and sales that we post: 1. Sign up for our email newsletter. We'll email you about the latest sales and ads as well as the best deals we're finding throughout Q4. 2. Follow the Sale & Ad Discussion forum. On this page, there will be a light blue "Follow" button (on the top of the page if you're on a tablet/desktop and on the bottom of page if you're on a phone). You can get notified when we post new threads in this forum for each ad, sale or catalog. 3. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook , Instagram and/or Threads. We'll post updates on these accounts including when we post new ads or learn about upcoming sales. 4. Bookmark our Black Friday news page and check it regularly for the latest updates. This page also will have a list of ads we've posted, upcoming sales and more.

How do you think this year will compare with recent years as far as number of sales, quality of deals, sale formats, etc? Do you think the election will cause retailers to shift their sale dates in any way? Black Friday also falls on the 29th, which is the latest possible day (and gives retailers much less time between BF and Christmas) so will that cause sales to start even earlier? What items do you think we'll see the best deals on this year? What items are you hoping to score deals on? Share your thoughts and remember that posts in this forum qualify for the giveaways we'll be having this year (more on that soon).

I'm going to be messaging those of you still in the club to get your addresses to send out your prizes soon, so be on the lookout for those.

Here are plain text lists of the items in the ads (at least the ones in our database) dating back to 2003: 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007 - 2008 - 2009 2010 - 2011 - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 2017 - 2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 And as always you can also visit the Black Friday Archive to browse over 1,400 historical Black Friday ad scans going back to 2004. Also you can browse the Black Friday forum archives to relive past discussions, see when ads were leaked in a particular year, etc.

For those who are unaware we have a GottaDEAL server on Discord for everyone to chat about Black Friday, deals or whatever else comes up. Here's the invite link: https://discord.gg/3hd2K5t If you're unfamiliar with Discord, it is a free text and voice chat service. You can access it via their dedicated apps for phones or tablets, or through a traditional web browser. Once you sign up for an account you can join the GD server using the special invite link above and can chat with everyone else who has signed up. One advantage of using Discord over the old forum chat function is that you can view past conversation in the channels and not just what is happening while you are there so can come and go as frequently as you want without missing anything. Currently there are #general and #tech channels for more off-topic chat and the main #blackfriday channel for discussing Black Friday. There's also a #contest channel that we'll use for some giveaways over the next few months and a #deals channel where we'll be posting some of the hottest deals, in-stock alerts for hot items, preorder opportunities and more. Sign up if you haven't and we'll see you there!

As I do every year after Labor Day I've opened the various sub-forums here to unofficially start our coverage of the Black Friday & holiday shopping season. As Black Friday itself becomes less and less significant we'll continue with the "Sale & Ad Discussion" forum having threads not only for Black Friday ads but also for many of the additional sales and catalogs that get posted on the site, whether they take place on Black Friday or not.

Details:https://corporate.target.com/press/release/2024/06/target-announces-return-of-target-circle-week-july-7-13-with-savings-up-to-50-off-thousands-of-item

Details: https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2024/06/24/walmart-brings-the-heat-with-its-largest-deals-event-ever

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-prime-day-2024-date

Not retail but Red Lobster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/20/red-lobster-bankruptcy.html

200 days until Black Friday

After the first 6 months of the prize club, we are now at 40 members, down from the original 59. Can't believe we're already halfway to the sales starting up again.

Scans: https://gottadeal.com/scans/hallmark-dream-book-2024 Also available in PDF and on browse-able product pages on https://www.hallmark.com

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/03/18/business/joann-fabric-bankruptcy Joann files for bankruptcy

Press release: https://corporate.target.com/press/release/2024/03/target-announces-plans-to-deliver-enhanced-shopping-experience-in-2024-and-beyond Nothing too major, mostly just re-branding of the different tiers. Target Circle: free tier, same as now except you won't have to manually add offers anymore - they'll be automatically applied at checkout Target Circle Card: formerly known as the RedCard. Same 5% discount and free 2-day shipping on most items. Target Circle 360: new paid membership, but appears to just be a re-branding of Shipt. Free same-day delivery on $35, access to other retailers via Shipt, and the same free 2-day shipping that cardholders get (this might be new for Shipt members?) We'll see if they eventually copy Walmart and have early access to Black Friday sales for certain tiers.

Macy's closing another 150 stores over the next few years https://www.marketwatch.com/story/macys-beats-earnings-expectations-and-unveils-a-bold-new-strategy-to-revitalize-the-brand-but-the-stock-falls-960dad70?mod=retail