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Black Friday 2014: Your complete step-by-step guide

Black Friday, the biggest and most-hyped shopping holiday of the year, is approaching faster than ever. But whether you're heading out to shop Thursday, Friday, or skipping the crowds altogether and shopping online for Cyber Monday, our friends at DealNews.com are here to help you get the most out of Black Friday 2014. 

6. Beware of early sales

Sue Ogrocki/AP/File
Toy department manager Gayla Harris stocks shelves for Black Friday sales at a Wal-Mart store in Oklahoma City last year.

  • By Staff

Black Friday verbiage expanded to include sales that sprout up throughout November, but the ad announcements definitely further obscure the difference between lead-up promotions and "official" Black Friday deals.

Since these sales may look and feel like Black Friday deals, but are specifically designed to create hype, it's worth discussing whether these promotions are worth your attention. The short answer? Early Black Friday sales are an excellent strategy for retailers, but consumers should be very wary.

The issue then isn't whether these deals are any good, but whether or not they will be better in the coming weeks. And in fact, our research indicates that many items you buy today will likely be discounted again, with greater savings, by the same or similar retailers in the coming weeks. The number of Editors' Choice deals that we find increases seven-fold on Thanksgiving Day, for example, when compared to the average day in November. As such, it's a fairly safe bet that Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday will ring in lower prices than the majority of the deals you're seeing in these early sales.

That said, we do sometimes see true Black Friday deals released earlier than advertised.

Read the full Dealnews blog post here. 

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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