Black Friday can be a tiring, stressful, and overwhelming ordeal. Here’s a list of which stores have the best deals on some of the top items for the holiday shopping season, along with our picks for Best All-Around Store, Biggest Disappointment, Biggest No-Show Product, Most Ubiquitous Bundle, and Most Confusing Ad.
If you see anything that you think should be changed or added to this list, drop a note in the comments section. Let’s try to keep things to nationwide brick and mortar stores, please. The true Black Friday experience entails actually leaving the house.
Blu-ray Player
- Magnavox NB500MG9 at Walmart for $128
Camcorders
- Flash Memory: Panasonic SDR-7K at Best Buy for $199
- Hard Drive: JVC Everio GZ-MG230 30GB at Walmart for $249
Computers
- eMachines desktop with 18.5-inch LCD at Best Buy for $299.96
- HP notebook with free Canon 3-in-1 printer at Best Buy for $349.98
Consoles
- Sony PS3 80GB with Ratchet & Clank + Casino Royale Blu-ray at Best Buy for $399
- Xbox 360 Arcade with Guitar Hero III and Wireless Guitar at Walmart for $199
- Xbox 360 Pro with LEGO Indy/Kung Fu Panda + $60 Gift Card at Target for $299
Digital Camera Bundle
- Kodak EasyShare C813 plus 7-inch Kodak digital frame at OfficeMax for $129.98
Digital Photo Frames (by size)
- Pandigital 3.5-inch digital frame at Sears for $29.99
- Nextar 7-inch digital frame at Sears for $37.99
- Sungale 8.5-inch digital frame at OfficeMax for $59.99
- Memorex 10-inch digital frame at OfficeMax for $89.99
DVD Player
- Memorex compact player at Target for $24.99
External Hard Drives (by size)
- 500GB Seagate FreeAgent at Walmart for $69
- 750GB Western Digital at Target for $88.88
- 1TB Maxtor OneTouch at Staples for $139.98
GPS
- Garmin nuvi 200 at Walmart for $97
LCD TVs (by size)
- Sansui 19-inch 720p LCD HDTV at Walmart for $178
- Westinghouse 26-inch 720p LCD HDTV at Target for $299
- Emerson 32-inch 720p LCD HDTV at Walmart for $388
- Polaroid 42-inch 1080p LCD HDTV at Walmart for $598
- Samsung 50-inch 720p Plasma HDTV at Walmart for $798
Monitor
- Acer 19-inch at Best Buy for $99, Soyo 19-inch at Office Max for $99
Best All-Around Store: Walmart
Walmart’s got the best all-around deals if you can stomach the 5am start time and the ravenous crowds. If you can only make it to one store, you’ll get the best bang for your buck here. The prices on Walmart’s TVs are especially nice.
Biggest Disappointment: Best Buy
What happened to Big Blue this year? It didn’t bring its A or B game. That’s what happens when all of your competition goes out of business, apparently. There are some okay desktop and notebook deals, but you’ll have to get there early and snag a special coupon-type ticket to get your mitts on the best deals. Aside from a few gems, most of Best Buy’s Black Friday ad was pretty nonchalant about doling out deals.
Biggest No-Show Product: PlayStation 3
With aggressively-priced Xbox 360 bundles and Nintendo Wii consoles finally in stock, Sony’s best showing this year is a $399 bundle with Ratchet & Clank and Casino Royale on Blu-ray at Best Buy? What’s that all about? When you can get an Xbox 360 with Guitar Hero III + guitar bundle for half the price at Walmart, it’s gonna be a slow holiday season for Sony. Yes, it has a built-in Blu-ray player. We know.
Most Ubiquitous Bundle: Digital Cameras
Look just about anywhere this year and you’ll find digital cameras either bundled with digital frames, printers, memory cards, cases, or a combination of those things. If you buy JUST a digital camera this year, you’re not looking hard enough.
Most Confusing Ad: Kmart
Four circulars? Really Kmart? There’s the Thursday ad (yes, Kmart is open from 8AM to 10PM on Thanksgiving – sheesh), the Friday ad, the Friday and Saturday ad, and the Saturday ad, each with specific deals during specific times on specific days.