Wal-Mart (WMT) won't close Thanksgiving weekend -- not at all. The world's largest retailer is going to keep its stores open 24 hours in an attempt to manage demand for entry during the busiest shopping days of the year. The company has announced it will also implement other crowd-control measures. The festivities start at 5 AM on November 27, 2009. Of course, this doesn't involve any change fro the Wal-Mart Supercenters which already remain open 24 hours a day, but it does address the 800 stores that aren't.

The 24-hour access alone won't do much to alleviate the pressure from thrill-seekers and the bargain-crazed who will want to push through immediately. To help with this problem, Wal-Mart is allowing people to gather in different parts of the store when waiting for the deals to kick off. According to Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar, "If you've got a 200,000-square-foot store, people will be dispersed throughout the store instead of lined up outside the store." Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

As the old infomercial guys love to say ... "But wait, there's more!"

As Peter Cohan wrote this weekend, sadly, some folks were killed over the holiday weekend due to what could be easily argued as Black Friday madness. In the zeal for saving a few dollars on cheaply-made, bargain-basement disposable consumer goods, one man was trampled to death as he opened the doors of a Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) store, while two other people were shot to death outside a Toys R Us store. Joy to the world, the materialism has won.

Although I enjoy covering the Black Friday event every year, the industry-made madness has become such an event that actually dumps respect for human beings into the garbage disposal, so that those crazy souls wanting to save 30% on shoes or a flat-screen television can get their fix.

I mean, is this what the holidays have come down to? The New York Times has a decent perspective on this. But, of course, America has always been about materialism and consumerism. Those are the factors that have made the U.S. the reigning economy worldwide. It's a free country for anyone to do as they wish, from billion-dollar companies to consumers with change in their pockets purchasing power. If we're all trained like Pavlov's dogs come the day after Thanksgiving -- credit cards in hand at 5:00am -- then it's no surprise some folks will die for the self-indulging greed of other human beings. Fa la la la la, la la la la.

It looks like we may have talked ourselves into an overly gloomy outlook for this year's holiday sales. Maybe that was the plan all along -- to depress expectations so much that it would be much easier to exceed them. And it looks like that's what happened -- analysts expected sales to rise 1% in the November/December 2008 shopping season -- and actual Black Friday results were up 3%.

Granted that's not an apples to apples comparison but the International Council of Shopping Centers predicted a 1% rise in same store sales this November/December shopping season and it has already revised its forecast upwards to 2%. For Black Friday, the 3% sales increase amounted to $10.6 billion in sales.

And there were some significant differences across different regions. The South gained the most, 3.4%, over 2007 while in the Northeast sales rose the least, 2.6%.

Nevertheless, other analysts remain gloomy. ShopperTrak has estimated that 9.9% fewer shoppers will descend on stores this November/December shopping season, producing a sales gain of 0.1%. And Gallup suggests that the average individual will spend 29% less, or $616, compared to 2007.

It appears that national retailers Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) are tired of having all those special, once-a-year Black Friday deals be spoiled on several websites weeks or months before the actual day arrives. Black Friday, to those who may be uninitiated, is the shopping day after Thanksgiving. Traditionally, it's the single-largest shopping day of the year.

But, these two retailers are striking back in a sense. Instead of places flyers in all those national newspapers on Thanksgiving Day (along with website updates), the two are planning a preemptive strike this year. What this means is that the nation will probably see Black Friday ads from Wal-Mart and Best Buy (and others) early next week before the holiday.

Best Buy has committed to releasing its ads on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. Although Wal-Mart has not been specific on when it will release its Black Friday ads, you can bet it will probably be Wednesday as well. Last week, the world's largest retailer threatened to sue any website that posted information on its Black Friday sales before that day, which has worked this year -- no leaks on official Black Friday deals from Wal-Mart have yet emerged, though rumors and rumblings abound.

For those of you who have been reading my series on what I call "Black Friday Madness" today, we'll end the series by my asking of the nuts-n-bolts question of the hour -- which retailers do you plan to visit this Friday?

The answers from many millions of shoppers -- if not the majority of them -- will probably be "whoever has the best prices". That's a completely valid reason, I might add. The price-savviest consumers will be perched on a schedule and strategy that places product pricing above all else, retailer be forgotten.

But, based on where the bulk of your holiday shopping may be, there are some who will prefer to be at one retailer first before all else. Most national retailers will open early this Friday -- many at 5am -- to let the hordes of patiently waiting consumers into stores to rid the shelves and back rooms of any bargain that is available.

Yet others will show up at their favorite retailer to get the bargains from a preferred shopping partner rather than going where the absolute lowest-prices products can be found. Where will you be very early Friday morning, and what's at the top of your shopping list? Be careful out there and keep a level head this Friday -- don't let the triptophan mess you up from the day before -- ok?

Happy hunting, pecking, grabbing and swiping.

After eating a good portion of turkey, dressing, potatoes and cranberry sauce tomorrow, millions of us will sit down to a TV full of football (mostly men) while others will rifle through every possible newspaper they can find to circle the bargains they want and organize their next day into one of craziness amid several perfected strategies of store-hopping (mostly women). Notice how the football strategy seems so much more laid-back than black Friday shopping? That's because it is.

The experience millions of shoppers will have this Friday will be nothing short of a lesson in capitalism at its core, where supply and demand meet at a crossroads only to be ran over by the hapless shopper racing to get to the next store to save 30% on this year's choice toy -- or maybe a new plasma TV.

Are you looking forward to the experience that is Black Friday a few days from now? There are some people I know ho actually look forward to this with great anticipation and cannot wait for all the madness. There's nothing like the feeling of getting a perfect bargain -- and it's almost like being on a drug according to some. The exhilaration of getting that perfect bargain is like a bong hit of epic proportions. That seratonin really starts flying through the veins of some shoppers I think.

What's your stance? Do you participate in the Black Friday madness out of shopping necessity or out of the overall experience being uplifting in a strange kind of way?

Although TVs are moving from the old tube-style to the new slim-style -- as in LCD and Plasma TVs -- the prices are finally starting to reach a point that the newer (if they can be called that now) and slimmer TVs are very affordable to most of us. In fact, a 20" LCD TV can now be had for about $200 if you look hard and research carefully -- just 10 years ago it was the tube TVs of 20" that were $200. A decade really does make a difference.

Below are some of the best bargains for TVs -- of all sizes and types -- that I found from some of the major retailers. Wal-Mart and Target are in this list -- as they are the largest discount retailers -- and so are Circuit City and Best Buy, the nation's two largest consumer electronics retailers.

Looking for a new TV for the family of for a rather nice holiday gift? If you're brave enough to shove a few elbows this Friday (and Saturday, if anything is left), here are the bargains you'll come across:

Wal-Mart
20" flat-screen TV -- $69
42" Widescreen Plasma HDTV -- $988
32" LCD HDTV -- $598

Target
37" LCD HDTV -- $1097
19" LCD HD-Ready TV -- $179

Best Buy
15" LCD TV -- $130
42" LCD HDTV -- $999

Circuit City
52" Rear-projection HDTV -- $999
40" LCD HDTV -- $999

Among the leaks for TV and DVDs, K-mart's 19" Trutech LCD TV can be had for $179 (regular: $349.99). That is one heckuva bargain at nearly 50% off. So, go snatch up that new TV this Friday so you can relax (heh, that's funny) this holiday season -- possibly in HDTV-style.

With Black Friday just a few days away, many of us will be packing our stomachs with plenty of food Thursday and then will be packing stores even fuller come Friday morning as we check out the multitude of bargains that will be available at just about every retail store imaginable.

What are some of the *standout* bargains at some of the bigger retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy. Circuit City, Toys R Us and others? I've been tuned into sites like www.BFads.net and www.GottaDeal.com to see what is lurking for shoppers come Friday morning and beyond -- and there are some deals to be had.

For example, Wal-Mart should be selling a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion ze2308wm notebook computer for $398, an HP Photosmart E317 digital camera for $98.88, a Lexmark all-in-one printer, scanner and copier for $39.88 and a 12-cup coffeemaker, food chopper or 2 qt. slow cooker for just $4.24. One of those sub-$5 coffee makers may come in handy as you wait... and wait... and wait in checkout lines. Bring your best insulated coffee mug with you, alright?

So, without further ado, I'm going to list the best Black Friday deals, right here on BloggingStocks, from eight of the top retailers in the nation in these three ultra-popular categories: Toys/Games, Computers/Laptop Systems and TVs/Electronics. The retailers that I'll cover will come from the below retailer list. Enjoy!

>> Best Buy
>> Circuit City
>> J.C. Penneys
>> Sears
>> Target
>> Toys R Us
>> Wal-Mart

Update November, 2008: WalletPop.com has prepared a gallery of 22 Black Friday deals. Check it out to learn about this year's deals.


With the infamous Black Friday less than a week away, details about special offers from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) are beginning to leak out. Some Black Friday ad websites such as BFAds.net are starting to post sale items from actual ads for this Friday's massive retail sales day.

Wal-Mart's ads are generally so secretive that it can be hard to know what the chain will feature on sale, even as retailers like Target, J.C. Penneys and Kohl's have their Black Friday ads scanned and posted all over the web long before the day arrives.

With Wal-Mart recently dropping hints for a $99 laptop computer and other sale items, the chain said late last week that it will unveil "extraordinary values" on a handful of items on its online store Thanksgiving day, a day before Black Friday. Wal-Mart stated that this strategy is a first in its history.

Wal-Mart said it plans to announce more than 70 "Black Friday" values this Thanksgiving holiday in ad circulars in addition to eight additional items that will be available only at stores from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. this coming Friday. Those "additional items" are probably $14 DVD players, $69 Nintendo DS game systems and $799 plasma TVs -- though these are just my guesses.