Here Are The Trends We See In This Year’s Black Friday Ads

Every year, the Black Friday ad flyers for major retailers “leak” online, giving shoppers an opportunity to pore over them well before the hefty Thanksgiving newspaper arrives on their doorsteps, if they receive a Thanksgiving newspaper at all.

BFAds.net, a site that engages in some creative watermarking of their material, is usually the first site to publish these.

Shopping Frenzy Week: For people who like a head start on their head start, Ace Hardware and JCPenney are kicking off their sales on Wednesday, continuing them through the weekend. Dell Small Business kicks off their sale on Monday.

Light it up: strings of LED lights and star showers are hot items in Black Friday flyers for stores that normally sell holiday decorations. Just <a href="http://Before You Use “Star Shower” To Light Up Your Home For Xmas, Familiarize Yourself With Your Local Airport’s Flight Path” target=”_blank”>check with your local airport before you put up the latter, if you take advantage of the deals.

It’s like… Companies with reward programs are pushing them in the first pages of flyers, using a hook of “It’s like getting the item for $X” when most of us probably won’t cash in those rewards anyway.

JCPenney also does this with some of its “spotlight deals,” which will require a mail-in rebate when you look at the fine print. If you tend to forget to mail in rebate forms, remind yourself of what the actual price will be.

Everyone wants the same gadgets. Inexpensive drones, TVs, sound bars, and the occasional low-price laptop as a doorbuster are popular themes in this year’s ads, as usual.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist