Walmart’s first holiday deal event ends Sunday. Amazon’s biggest one opens next Thursday at 3:01 a.m. Eastern. Best Buy has a fresh batch of deals out today, part of its new-deals-every-Friday routine. Black Friday itself is still two weeks away, on November 27.
That is the problem with Black Friday now. It is a season of overlapping events, each with its own start time, its own member early access and its own fine print. Below is every date I could confirm from retailer announcements as of Friday, November 13. Where a store hasn’t published its Black Friday week plans yet (Target, Macy’s and Kohl’s among them), I say so instead of filling the gap with predictions.
Use it to pick the two or three moments that matter for what you’re buying. Nobody needs to be awake for all of them.
The calendar at a glance
| Date | Retailer | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Nov. 5 to 25 | Home Depot | Black Friday Savings Event, in store and online |
| Nov. 12 to 15 | Walmart | Early Black Friday Deals |
| Fri., Nov. 13 | Best Buy | Weekly Friday deal drop |
| Nov. 15 to 25 | Sam’s Club | Countdown to Black Friday sale (planned) |
| Nov. 16 | Lowe’s | 12 Days of Deals begins |
| Nov. 17 | Starbucks | Red Cup Day |
| Nov. 19 to 28 | Best Buy | Black Friday doorbusters and deals |
| Nov. 19 to 30 | Amazon | Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday events |
| Nov. 23 to 29 | Walmart | Black Friday Deals |
| Nov. 26 | Lowe’s | Early online doorbuster access for MyLowe’s Rewards members |
| Nov. 27 | Everyone | Black Friday; Target opens and Walmart’s in-store deals start at 6 a.m. local time |
| Nov. 28 | Independent shops | Small Business Saturday |
| Nov. 29 to 30 | Best Buy | Cyber Monday deals |
| Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 | Walmart | Cyber Monday event, online only |
| Dec. 18 to 24 | Best Buy | Last-minute savings event |
Already running, or already over
Target ran its Early Black Friday sale on Nov. 5 to 7. What’s still running is its Deal of the Day, which started Nov. 1 and continues daily until Christmas Eve, and Target says that this year you can preview the next day’s featured deal a day ahead. Its holiday fact sheet also says limited-time offers will show up most Thursdays through Saturdays. The official Black Friday week schedule wasn’t in that fact sheet, and I haven’t seen Target announce it since.
Best Buy opened its season with Halloween doorbusters on Oct. 30. Early Black Friday deals followed on Nov. 6, and the company said new deals would drop every Friday, which makes today one of those days. Home Depot has been running its Black Friday Savings Event since Nov. 5, through Nov. 25. Lowe’s began its Black Friday deals back on Oct. 29. Amazon’s early Black Friday deals are also live, ahead of the main event.
Walmart’s Early Black Friday Deals run through Sunday, Nov. 15. Walmart+ members got the hot deal drops online first, at 12:01 a.m. Eastern on Nov. 12, and stores put the deals out at 6 that same morning, local time. Everyone else could shop online from 12:01 a.m. Eastern on Nov. 13. If an item shows out of stock online, check a store before Sunday.
Next week: Thursday is the one to circle
Sam’s Club plans to start its Countdown to Black Friday sale on Nov. 15 and run it to Nov. 25. Lowe’s expanded its usual 10 Days of Deals to 12 this year, starting Nov. 16, with new offers each day up to Black Friday. Starbucks Red Cup Day is Tuesday, Nov. 17: buy a holiday drink and you get a reusable red cup while supplies last. Fine if you were getting the drink anyway. Not worth a special trip.
Then comes Thursday, Nov. 19, when two of the biggest electronics sellers start at once. Amazon’s Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday events begin one minute after midnight Pacific time and run straight through Nov. 30, with a themed batch of deals each day. Best Buy’s Black Friday sale starts the same day and runs 10 days, through Saturday, Nov. 28. Expect the two to watch each other’s prices on TVs, headphones and laptops all week.
Thanksgiving week
Walmart’s second event, Black Friday Deals, runs Nov. 23 to 29. Walmart+ members get early online access to the hot deal drops at 12:01 a.m. Eastern on Monday, Nov. 23. Whatever is left of those drops opens to all customers at 12:01 a.m. Eastern on Nov. 24, and the in-store deals start Black Friday morning at 6, local time. Walmart also says some online-only deals stay exclusive to Walmart+ members for the first 24 hours, while supplies last.
Thanksgiving is Thursday, Nov. 26. Target says every one of its stores will be closed that day, reopening Friday morning at 6 local time. Lowe’s stores are closed on Thanksgiving too, but MyLowe’s Rewards members (the program is free to join) get online access to Black Friday doorbusters on the 26th, one day before everyone else. Costco keeps Thanksgiving on its standing list of days its U.S. warehouses close. Check your own store’s hours before planning a Thursday trip.
Black Friday, Nov. 27, is when Amazon does its first double drop: new batches of Today’s Big Deals at midnight and again at 8 a.m. Pacific. The Saturday after is Small Business Saturday, Nov. 28, if you’d rather give part of the gift budget to local shops.
Cyber Monday is a stretch now
Cyber Monday falls on Nov. 30. At Amazon it’s the last day of a 12-day event, with two more drops that day, at midnight and at 8 in the morning Pacific time. Best Buy’s Cyber Monday deals start a day early, on Sunday, Nov. 29. Walmart’s Cyber Monday event is online only and lasts three days, from 12:01 a.m. Eastern on Nov. 30 through Dec. 2.
After that, the calendar thins out but doesn’t end. Lowe’s has December Deal Drops from Dec. 3 to 24, and Best Buy has a Last-Minute Savings Event from Dec. 18 to 24. By then, shipping deadlines matter more than the size of the discount.
Start times, translated
Retailers publish start times in their own home time zone. Amazon’s 12:01 a.m. Pacific start on Nov. 19 is 3:01 a.m. in New York, so anyone in the Eastern time zone can sleep and still be early. Walmart works the other way. Its 12:01 a.m. Eastern launches are 9:01 p.m. the night before in California, which means West Coast Walmart+ members can shop the Black Friday Deals drops on Sunday evening, Nov. 22.
In-store times are the exception. Target’s doors and Walmart’s in-store Black Friday deals both start at 6 a.m. in each store’s own time zone, so shoppers in Denver and Boston set the same alarm.
What tends to go first
A doorbuster is a limited quantity by design. Retailers advertise a price low enough to bring people in and stock only so many units at it. Across past years the pattern has been steady: the cheapest TV in each screen size, the console bundle with a game included, the toy everyone’s kid asked for, and big-name headphones or tablets at the lowest price of the year are the first things to show “sold out.” Anything that is still on sale at noon on day one is rarely in short supply.
Membership windows shrink the pile further. When Walmart+ members shop a drop 24 hours before everyone else, the public sees whatever they left. If the item you want is a hot deal drop and you aren’t a member, plan on a backup, or on the next round. Amazon’s second daily drop at 8 a.m. Pacific is effectively a second chance for people who didn’t stay up for midnight.
Small kitchen appliances, bedding, clothing and most store-brand goods behave differently. They tend to stay on sale for days, often at matching prices across Walmart, Target and Amazon, so the first hour buys you nothing.
The safety nets that make buying early less risky
A few policies cover you if the price drops after you check out. Target’s Holiday Price Match Guarantee spans Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 and gives you the difference if Target’s own price drops later in the season. Its extended holiday returns cover purchases made in the same window: most electronics can come back until Jan. 24, 2027, while Apple, Beats and mobile phones have a shorter deadline of Jan. 8, 2027. The details are on Target’s holiday shopping fact sheet.
Here’s how that plays out with round numbers. Say you buy a $200 air fryer at Target today and it shows up at $160 on Target’s site on Dec. 1. You can ask for the $40 difference instead of returning it and buying it again. It only covers Target’s own price, not a competitor’s, so keep the receipt and a screenshot of the lower price.
Amazon’s holiday return window, as the company described it to sellers, stretches to the end of January 2027 for anything bought in November or December, with an earlier cutoff for Apple products. Over at Best Buy, a holiday price guarantee covers its own price drops; confirm this year’s dates on its price-match policy page before relying on it. These are the reasons a good price on Nov. 14 doesn’t have to wait for Nov. 27.
A simple way to use all this
Match the date to the item. For a TV, laptop or anything electronic, the useful moments are Nov. 19 (Amazon and Best Buy both start) and the morning of Black Friday. If you pay for Walmart+, the one alarm worth setting is 12:01 a.m. Eastern on Nov. 23, adjusted for your time zone. For tools and home projects, Home Depot’s event runs through Nov. 25 and Lowe’s adds a new deal every day from Nov. 16, so there’s no single day to wait for. For clothing, gifts and household goods, buy when the price is right at a store with a price guarantee, and let the policy handle any later drop.
Target’s Black Friday week, Macy’s and Kohl’s hadn’t published their main sale dates as of Nov. 13, and Amazon’s full list of themed deal days isn’t out yet either. When those appear, they’ll slot into the same weeks shown above.
Each event on this calendar is a separate sale, so a deal you see today can come back at the same price on Nov. 19 or Nov. 27, or not at all. The calendar tells you when to look. Your price notes tell you whether to buy.
