Black Friday 2011: The Deals Worth Fighting People For

November 16, 2011 By Adam Debrowski

So much for that 50-cent toaster.

A major US city is no place to mess around when it comes to Black Friday deal-hunting. Dallas is no different, so I took the liberty of compiling my Black Friday picks into one chaotic article. Only stores located in the DFW Metroplex are listed, but almost all of them are national chains.

Be forewarned: due to eternal, undying department store “blowout sales” and “1-day events” — yeah, the ones that happen every day, 365 days a year — I’ve decided to slice most of the clothing “sales” from this article.

Also be forewarned: this list is pretty lengthy.

[AR] = After Mail-In Rebate

[CR] = Coupon Required (usually available when you walk in)

Stores are sorted in descending order of deal “hotness”. The store name is followed by its opening time — many are now dangerously close to becoming “Black Thursday”:

Target (12 a.m. midnight)

$298.00 — Westinghouse 46″ 1080p LCD HDTV
$139.99 — Microsoft Xbox 360 4GB system
$265.00 — Element 40″ 1080p LCD HDTV (for when the 46″ TVs run out)
$89.00 — TomTom Via 1505M 5″ widescreen GPS
$39.99 — Farberware 18 pc. non-stick cooking set
$15.00 — Epic Mickey (Wii)
$27.00 — Forza Motorsport 4 (Xbox 360)
$3.99 — Pulp Fiction on Blu-Ray
$3.99 — The Hangover, The Blind Side, Twilight: New Moon on DVD
$3.99 — Pre-school games including Cootie, Yahtzee Jr., Candy Land, Chutes & Ladders, and more
$29.99 — Target Home folding fire bowls

Best Buy (12 a.m. midnight)

$199.99 — Sharp 42″ 1080p LCD HDTV
$39.99 — Toshiba Smart Blu-Ray player
$249.99 — Asus 10.1″ Transformer tablet with Android 3.2 OS
$4.99 — Select Blu-Rays including Inception, The Dark Knight, Pulp Fiction, Ronin, Office Space, and more
$2.99 — Select “Hits” CDs including The Temptations, Lynard Skynard, Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson, and more
$7.99 — Gears of War Triple Pack (Xbox 360)
$29.99 — Cabela’s Survival Top Shot Elite Bundle (Wii), NBA 2K12, Gears of War 3 (Xbox 360), Battlefield 3, Uncharted 3 (PS3)

Walmart (12 a.m. midnight)

$248.00 — Emerson 40″ 1080p HDTV
$188.00 — Emerson 32″ 720p HDTV
$2.84 — Rival mini-chopper or 2-slice waffler
$199.96 — Microsoft Xbox 360 4GB console with Kinect and free $50 Walmart gift card
$248.00 — HP AMD dual-core laptop (3GB RAM, 320GB HDD)
$49.00 — LG Blu-Ray Player
$20.00 — 8′ inflatable Santa/snowman or 5′ Harrison pre-lit Christmas tree
$28.00 — Battlefield 3 (Xbox 360/PS3)
$5.00 — Blu-Rays: Inception, 300, I Am Legend, Quantum of Solace, The Matrix, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Gran Torino
$29.00 — Jeep 6 pc. luggage set
$67.00 — Sportcraft 4 pc. table tennis table
$158.00 — BouncePro 14′ trampoline and enclosure

JCPenney (4 a.m.)

$39.99 — Protocol 4 pc. luggage set
$9.88 [AR] — coffeemaker, slow cooker, griddle, or waffler (brand not mentioned, but who cares for $10)
$14.88 [AR] — Oster wine opener
$9.88 [AR] — Sunbran 4-slice toaster
$29.88 [AR] — Phillipe Richard 26 pc. stainless steel cutlery set
$24.88 [AR] — JCP Home 12 pc. stainless steel cookware set

Sears (4 a.m.)

$499.99 — Zenith 50″ 1080p plasma HDTV
$199.99 — Seiki 32″ 720p LCD HDTV
$499.99 — NordicTrack T5.7 treadmill
$1698.99 — Sony 55″ 1080p 3D 120Hz LED HDTV with free Sony 5.1 1000-watt 3D Blu-Ray home theater system
$79.99 — Medal 4 pc. table tennis table
Free toolbag with $20 tool purchase

Macy’s (12 a.m. midnight)

$9.99 [AR] — Bella Panini Maker, Bella 5-qt. slow cooker, Black & Decker waffler, Bella 20″ griddle
$34.99 [AR] — Theater-style popcorn maker
$9.99 [AR] — Bella quesadilla maker, donut maker, circus waffler maker, or cake pop maker

Kohl’s (12 a.m. midnight)

$12.99 [AR] — Food Network 3-cup food processor, Black & Decker Crush Master 10-speed, George Foreman Lean Mean 60 sq. in. grill
$47.99 — Oneida 82 pc. flatware set
$79.99 — 7-ft pre-lit Christmas tree

Staples (6 a.m.)

$19.99 — Memorex iPod/iPhone shelf speaker system
$4.99 [AR] — Staples brand 100-pack blank CD-Rs
$4.99 [AR] — Samsung WEP490 Bluetooth headset

Office Max (6 a.m.)

$349.99 — Epson EX3210 Projector with free 80″ pull-down screen

Toys R Us (9 p.m. Thanksgiving Day)

$3.99 — All Sony DVDs
Free $50 Toys R Us gift card with purchase of iPod Touch for $199.99

Bass Pro Shops (6 a.m.)

$59.99 — BPS Enigma fishing reel combo
$9.97 — 27″x36″ dog pillow bed

Cabela’s (5 a.m.)

$39.99 — Simmons 20-60×60 Prosport spotting scope
$9.99 — X-Tek base layer crew or pants

ACE Hardware (hours vary)

$99.99 — Craftsman 190 pc. SAE & metric mechanic’s tool set
[CR] 50% off a single regular-priced item

Sports Authority (5 a.m.)

50% off every type of ball in the store (with a few exceptions)

Half Price Books (7 a.m.)

[CR] 40% off your highest-priced item

Sam’s Club (5 a.m.)

$498.00 — Samsung 51″ 720p plasma HDTV

Stores that I didn’t find “waitable” deals at: Costco, Lowe’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, GameStop, Guitar Center, Academy Sporting Goods, and Michael’s. That’s not to say they didn’t have good deals, but they just weren’t wait-in-line-at-midnight-worthy. To view Black Friday ads in their entirety, check out BFAds.net.

Did I miss any of your favorite Black Friday deals? Leave a comment below!

Unnecessary/incessant rambling: you may or may not have noticed that Office Depot hasn’t been mentioned. That’s because they’re in time-out right now. On the front page of their ad, they advertise a 32GB HP Touchpad for $149.99…when you buy any HP laptop. They claim that the Touchpad retails for $499.99 and that you’re getting on heck of a deal. Anybody who follows consumer electronics can tell you that HP announced a fire sale on these things in August and permanently reduced the 16GB model to $99.99 and the aforementioned 32GB model to $149.99. That’s right, if you purchase an HP laptop at Office Depot on Black Friday, you can snag a discontinued HP Touchpad for…well, the going price. It’s a dirty little trick to move HP laptops while ridding themselves of their Touchpad stockpiles. Oh well, business is business…does this count as investigative journalism?

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