AMiklosovic

Once BF really started to catch on as a huge shopping event, major retailers have continued to push the limit of when to open their stores. Stores have gone from opening at 6am to a few hours earlier (3-5am), to Midnight and now last year to opening Thanksgiving Evening. More stores may open Thanksgiving Evening that did not last year (or open at Midnight if they haven't opened that early), and I think many that were open Thanksgiving may open slightly earlier...say 4-6PM. I could also see possibly this year or the near future, that stores open on Thanksgiving and are open for 8 hours or so, and close for a few hours and open up again on BF morning. They could use this type of strategy to market certain items (hot-ticket toys and tech) to entice shoppers to come to stores when the corporate execs want them there. Having a smoking deal on computers/tablets who's price is only good on Thursday, then having an awesome deal on TVs start Friday. I feel this is where the BF event is heading....Walmart sort of started this with their staggered deals, and I think other retailers may adapt this idea to get certain items sold on Thursday that people wait in line for. Walmart is one of the front-runners of pushing their store opening hours right? Haven't they been one of the stores leading the "open-earlier" idea every year? If Walmart opens earlier on Thanksgiving, you can bet other retailers will push their openings earlier than they originally planned. If a store plans to open at 8-9pm TG, but other retailers have pushed up to 5-6pm, they cant let all the shoppers go to those retailers. They will push their own openings forward to make shoppers decide where to go.

the Visa GC acts just like a debit/credit card, except its pre-set to $50 and thats all that is on it. Its accepted anywhere Visa is. Also very likely INTL charges may apply....unless you use it online maybe.

I would highly suggest writing a list for each store, of what you intend to purchase at each store. Then you want to compare what times stores open, and if there are any items at certain store with highly limited quantity (TVs, PCs, Laptops, Tablets, etc.). Those really popular highly-sought-for items will go very quickly, and the stores will not carry many. If you plan to get any sort of highly-wanted item, you definitely want to be at that store to get it. A lot of people split up and go to separate stores so they can get those items. Things like household items and apparel/accessories won't sell out very fast (unless its a special item) if at all during the day.

What do you guys think of the HP ENVY laptops Office Max/BB have in their ad's? I am looking to purchase myself a laptop, and that is about my price range I would prefer to be around (500-600). Do they look to be worth that price-tag, or are there other's out there that are comparable, but cheaper? Also do you think the BF prices on those laptops will be the lowest they go this year, or will the stores have a week where they have good laptop deals before X-Mas?

WOW, that is VERY helpful! Unfortunately, there are only 5 laptops that come up at the moment...I'll have to check back on that chart later. 100 Cudo's for him/her making that!

HP - $499 3rd Gen Intel® Core? i5-3210M - 15.6" screen size, 8GB DDR3 memory, 750GB hard drive If I recall, this one is there new "Envy" line? What do people think of it? I am considering purchasing myself a laptop (or ultrabook) and wondered how good their "Envy" line of laptops looks, as Office Max also has 1 or 2 of them also. HP - $529 3rd Gen Intel® Core? i5-3210M - 17.3" screen size, 6GB DDR3 memory, 750GB hard drive HP - $629 3rd Gen Intel® Core? i7-3632QM - 14" screen size, 8GB DDR3 memory, 1TB hard drive These are the other 2 Envy Laptops they are selling. Is it best to just get the i7 for $629, verse the i5 for $499? Is the extra $130 worth having an i7 over an i5 (and the extra 250G HD space)?

My store I work at installed eSigns this past winter. A lot of customers commented on the difficulty of seeing the signs also. They are hard to view unless the sign is near eye level. If I had to venture a guess for eSign stores, Kohls may have the signs switch early so that the toppers can still be put up on Wednesday. Also, if other eSign stores are like mine, they will still have paper signs for certain things (our store uses them for all Bulkstacks - Toys, Small Electrics), since stores are only given a certain number of eSigns. Bulkstacked items for BF will very likely have paper signs, and therefore get their paper signs on Wednesday prior to BF also.

Y'know whats funny, regardless if Walmart posted their AD 4 months early or 2 days, everyone who waits for it on-line is 99% going to see it, and compare prices to every other store they can acquire the same/similar item. If its cheaper somewhere else, they aren't getting it at Walmart! Does Walmart really think if they wait until 3 days before Thanksgiving, that more people will blindly shop in there? The only thing I can think of for them doing this is, to prevent their competition from altering sale prices in their corporate system (which I assume can be done, given enough time before the sale) so they don't get undercut on big ticket and/or the "hot buy" for that year.

Also, if you shop the Wednesday before BF for the sale in the evening, I'm not sure if you will be given KC or not.

I would not recommend any "i" type HDTV. the i stands for integrated, where as the "720p" and "1080p" stand for progressive, which means your picture is going to be a much better quality with a 720p/1080p. Also my personal experience, when we looked at VIZIO in the stores against all of them, their picture color had a noticeable difference.

Kohl's has been doing this the last couple years to attract more customers in. 15% off coupon + EB + Kohls Cash = very hard to not take advantage of!

At my kohls last year (cleveland area) I shopped at around 7-7:30 and it was not bad at all like a lot of people say. I probably had a 15 minute wait in line. I think if you aren't going to Kohls for a really great priced item that everyone will grab quickly (like the small electrics on sale for $9.99 and $19.99 AFTER the rebate, and the GPS and toys) then I think you will be fine going to kohls a few hours after they've opened.

Could anyone give me some advice on the brands i've seen: AOC, VIZIO, Dynex, Sansui, Sylvania, or any other brands that aren't as noticed? I'm looking to buy a 21-23" LCD HDTV for my room, and i'm wondering how good all these new brands i've seen are, and i'm hoping to find one for $199, am I crazy?

Walmart isnt really in the business of customer service like other retailers. you can tell WM is very serious, they have to send this site a LEGAL letter not to post a BF ad? I mean come on....thats just nitpicking. Walmart has such low prices, they arent as concerned about a few disgruntled customers, since they thrive on mass quantity of customers.

I do not know about all the stores, but the store I work at, sets up those bank-rope like things before the registers, and then usually an associate directs them to the first open register, or the cashier will say something. I shopped last year at my store around 7:30am, it was still very very busy, and I probably only stood in line for 15 minutes or so. Kohls isn't like Target and Walmart, as those 2 arent a traditional "deptartment store" like Macys, JCP, sears and Kohls. They sell perishables and electronics, so they are going to have many more registers and multiple places to check-out.