This Year’s Black Friday at Walmart

Truth time here.  I have never ever shopped on Black Friday.

That’s right.  Frugal gal missing out on all those sales!  See the thing is when I was younger I didn’t really need to buy much for the holidays, and then once I had kids, well, I had kids!  While they were still tiny we moved here to Upstate NY. . . and hunting season starts the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  Every year Yankee Bill takes a week off from work and hits the woods on Friday night.  He comes home on either Wednesday night late or sometimes not until mid morning on Thanksgiving.  We eat at my MIL’s and then he’s gone back out in the woods again until Sunday night.

Try finding a babysitter willing to come over at 3am to stay with your kids so you can go shopping.

So I watch the fun and hit the cyber sales and call it good!  However I know a lot of you really enjoy the shopping and the challenge, so even though I don’t participate every year when Walmart gives me the chance to tell you all about their plans I always take it.

This year Walmart is running 3 events in one-and they’ve included a special “1-Hour In Stock Guarantee that I’ll tell you all about.  There will be different sale items available for each “event”.  The first kicks off at 8PM on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday the 22nd).  Then there will be a special electronics event at 10PM on Thanksgiving Day.  Finally on Black Friday (Thursday the 23rd) itself starting at 5am there will be the rest of the in store deals.  Your flier will show you which items go on sale at which times–and don’t forget you can always find your local flier online at the Walmart.com Black Friday page.

The one hour guarantee is part of the 10pm Thanksgiving Electronics Event:

“We know it’s frustrating for customers to shop on Black Friday and not get the items they want,” said Duncan Mac Naughton, chief merchandising and marketing officer, Walmart U.S.  “This year, for the first time ever, customers that shop during Walmart’s one-hour event will be guaranteed to have three of the most popular items under their tree at a great low price.”

Long story short-if you are in the store, in the queue line between 10PM and 11PM for the Apple iPad®2 16GB with Wi-Fi  ($399 plus get a $75 Walmart Gift Card), the Emerson® 32” 720p LCD TV ($148) or the LG® Blu-ray™ Player ($38) then you are guaranteed to get one.  If they run out you will be given a special gaurantee card which must be paid for by midnight and registered online. The item will then be shipped to the store where it was purchased for you to pick up before Christmas.

Oh, and the price match guarantee is also in affect, as always!  Remember though-price match from a competitor needs to be on the exact same item–same brand, same size etc.

One last cool thing-starting tomorrow (Nov 20th) you can go to Walmart.com and download your local store map–it will show you exactly where each item on your list will be located during the Black Friday sales!  Just go to the online version of your local store’s Black Friday sale flier and look for the button that says “Store Map” (I circled it for you above and put a bit red arrow!)

Aslo for the first time, customers can view an interactive local store map on their mobile phone via the Walmart Mobile App, enabling customers to click on items to see the price, product description and location in the store.

For more information check out the full press release:  Walmart “Guarantees” Customers its Best Black Friday Ever

Happy Shopping!

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post I am participating in with the Walmart Moms. Walmart has provided me with compensation for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own.