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.

Oh ya, I also bet WM does this every year, because they don't want to lose money. With WM's price matching, they might end of losing lots of money if people can price match everything they want 2-3 weeks in advance

I went to a WM last year for BF, and it was the WORST experience at any store I have ever been to. I will never go to a WM store on BF, unless they are selling items for literally the price of dirt BB, Kohls, Target, Old Navy and a couple others are much better BF experiences.

well, if you have no receipt they will only give you a return amount for the lowest price the item has been on sale that season I believe. They dont give you back the retail price of the item, that would be obsurd as people would buy things on sale and go return it and expect the full retail back. Kohls is probably more return-friendly than most places. If you have a receipt (gift or regular) they will either credit a kohls charge if it was used to purchase it, or give you a gift card with the return amount on it. It sounds like you tried returning a grill with no receipt though.

This is obviously WM's fault. Stores like BB that sell hot electronics have a ticket system or "max occupancy" system. (i know a BB near me lets in X# of people, then when 1/2/3/4 persons leave, 1/2/3/4 are allowed back in.) Target also seems to attract more "civilized" shoppers. last year I went to WM, BB and Target on BF, and the 24 hour WM was by FAR the worst place. The electronics area was completely congested with people trying to get at TV's and all the other hot items, and we literally could only walk in one direction, so my mom and I left without making a purchase, and we likely will not return to WM this year. We then slid over to BB and picked up some stuff then went over to a Target, which was pretty crowded, but all the hot stuff wasn't jammed into the electronics dept. WM having to pay $7,000 is like a regular citizen having to pay $2.00 for a speeding ticket, its just a tiny inconvenience that isn't going to teach you anything. WM should be fined by OSHA, fined by the county the WM was in, and be sued by the family of the victim for not having enough safety precautions in place to avoid this sort of thing. If WM was hit with fines totaling in the 8-figures, they would MAKE CERTAIN it would never happen again at any store.

I believe the books out now, should be the ones for this season. They will be on a tower near all registers, and depending on your store, they may be near CS also.

I believe that Kohls never has these on sale, since they are for the Kohls Care for Kids program to raise money. I am 99% sure that they cost $5 each though, and they should be at all the registers in your store. I'm sure this is one of the items they will try to make sure they keep stocked throughout BF, and if they are empty, I would ask an associate if they have any more in stock.

Yes it is true. Most Kohls stores recieved their first shipments of christmas stock in the 2nd/3rd week of september, most notably the "christmas shop" in their seasonal/dec. home section. In the next couple weeks, you will notice more new christmas stuff being put out also.

They have a 10% and 15% kohls charge promotions. (the 10% is the normal, and it changes to 15% for a couple weeks quite regularly.) If you dont have a charge, and you plan to shop at kohls on BF, I would open one on BF, as you save x% (10 or 15, depending which it will be on BF) on all your purchases the day you open your charge. They will also probably give kohls cash like they did last year, so when your total rings up, you'll get kohls cash on the total before the %off discount, so if your %off takes you just under a $50 increment, you'll still get the KC.

Kohl's is usually very good about giving customers the price that the sign says it is. If you go to the register and see a pair of pants you bought is ringing up more than the sign said it was and you let the POS person know the sign said it was $xx.xx instead of what it rang up as, most of the time they will adjust it on the spot, unless its a big difference in what you claim as what it rings up as. Kohls does flip their BF ad signs on the WEDNESDAY night before thanksgiving (they are closed on thanksgiving). I would suggest going in 30 minutes - 1 hour before the store closes, if you want the BF sale price for "non-doorbuster" items like clothing, pillows, candle/china collections and such. The BF signs will be up that night, so if you dont want to wait in the lines to buy clothes or anything that wont be gone when you get there (like GPS/digital camera or hot small electric items that sellout quickly) then going that night is a good option.

I bought a Keurig Special Edition for mothers day this past year from Kohls (as I work there and get a discount), and it is FABULOUS. BB&B sells a 60 pack variety that is nice, and kohls has k-cups on sale regularly for around $10, and if you have a coupon to use with a kohls charge, you cant beat the price if you buy at the right time. you can also go to bigcatcoffee website as they sell customizable packs of 25 that you can choose up to 5 different coffees/tea/cocoa for your pack instead of buying a normal package of 18 from a retailer. It is a little more expensive, but I think if you own a single-cup maker, your going for the quality and quickness.