Filed under: Holiday Shopping, Family Money, Personal Finance
There's no doubt that the weeks of Black Friday and Cyber Monday will bring show-stopping sales and savings, but where will you be able to find the brightest of baubles and bargains that DealNews labels Editors' Choice?
Below, we've rounded up the top five stores that slashed the most price tags and flaunted the best sales during the Black Friday week time frame (from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday) in 2013. These stores offered the best prices on the most popular items and annihilated the competition last year, so it's safe to assume that they'll want to repeat such success again this time around. It looks like less-familiar retailers are aiming to take out some of the top names for Black Friday.
Amazon (AMZN): 286 Editors' Choice Deals
Best for: Consumers who want a one-stop shop for sales, and those who don't mind the stress of staggered, fast-selling "Lightning Deals."
Few stores have come close to touching Amazon.com's reign throughout the holiday shopping season and, for the fourth year running, it has topped our list of winners. Last year, we listed 186 Editors' Choice deals from the mother of all online stores during Black Friday week -- that was 51 percent of its total deals we listed throughout.
How will Amazon manage to stay on top once again this year? As is now customary of the megastore, Amazon will be unrelenting in matching and undercutting prices at Walmart (WMT) and Best Buy (BBY) throughout Black Friday as well as the holiday season. Just keep in mind that a lot of these deals will sell out quickly.
Hottest deals: Last year, the store's greatest offering came in the form of a $200 Amazon gift card with the purchase of select Ultrabooks, while those looking for cheaper thrills scored a host of Editors' Choice-worthy 3D Blu-ray movies which had been discounted to just $5. Wise 2014 shoppers should thus look for gift card bundles on electronics, as well as super cheap movie deals. Also last year, Amazon offered a rare dollar-off discount on Cyber Monday: $5 off orders over $35 when you created and shared a wishlist.
Newegg: 164 Editors' Choice Deals
Best for: Tech lovers and shoppers who can't click quick enough for Amazon flash deals.
For the first time, Newegg outshone Walmart and Best Buy to earn second place on our list. Although the retailer once again relied on mail-in rebates for many of its top offers, we marked more than 100 of its deals as Editors' Choice throughout the Thanksgiving and Black Friday period in 2013 -- that's almost twice as many as 2012. The Cyber Monday week run saw an additional 64 such deals, which cemented the electronics store as one of the "best in show" throughout the season.
Although Amazon will still slaughter Newegg when it comes down to numbers, shoppers are more likely to get their hands on the finer deals from Newegg since Amazon's deals will go out of stock very quickly.
Hottest deals: Savvy shoppers might actually be able to make money at Newegg through a rebate; last year, for example, lucky shoppers scored a 64GB USB 3.0 flash drive with security software for a $7 profit. The store is also fantastic for all sorts of electronics, as it offered a Samsung (SSNLF) 40-inch 1080p HDTV for $10 less than the manufacturer's own Black Friday sale price, earning it some serious kudos from our tech-savvy staff.
Best Buy: 102 Editors' Choice Deals
Best for: Shoppers who prefer to prepare extensively with advance ads containing buzz-worthy doorbusters.
Best Buy also saw a rise in the number of Editors' Choice deals listed from our crew from the year previous, but it wasn't enough to stop it from slipping to third place in our ranking. More than half of its deals during Black Friday week were Editors' Choice-worthy -- that was 80 in total, while Cyber Monday week saw just 22 good enough to earn the tag.
Hottest deals: Best Buy frequently has some notable rumored doorbusters in its Black Friday ad, and last year was no different; flying off the virtual shelves was a new Kindle Fire HD 16GB tablet at the same price as a refurb, hitting an all-time low. Look to the store for a selection of name-brand, large-scale HDTV deals, as well as super cheap laptops. In 2013, for example, Best Buy offered the cheapest ever Haswell-equipped 17-inch laptop ever.
Walmart: 73 Editors' Choice Deals
Best for: Shoppers who want a store that front-loads the best deals during Black Friday week, rather than Cyber Monday.
Despite only listing four fewer Editors' Choice deals last year, Walmart slipped two places to fourth-best over the holiday shopping period last year. As with each of the previously listed stores in our ranking, the national department store listed substantially more impressive deals during the Black Friday week period when compared to the following week's treats, as 60 percent of Walmart's Editors' Choice deals were listed during the first week of madness.
Hottest deals: We expect Walmart to once again offer an attractive selection of discounted Blu-ray movies and box sets this Black Friday (last year the store dropped contemporary and classic titles to just $4, beating Amazon's $5 sale). The store also offered a surprising favorite at the end of Cyber Monday in 2013, knocking the Nerf Rebelle Sweet Revenge Kit to half price via an in-store coupon, so shoppers should also consider the retailer for toy deals.
Tiger Direct: 56 Editors' Choice Deals
Best for: Shoppers who don't mind a rebate in the pursuit of a great TV deal.
TigerDirect just made the list this year, beating Home Depot by a mere six deals. Three-quarters of these Editors' Choice numbers were listed during the Black Friday week time-frame. The store listed a significantly lower number of top-notch deals revered by our editors over Cyber Monday week, but overall it put in a solid performance earning it the final place in our ranking.
Hottest deals: The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 was top of the list, but didn't hit the virtual shelves until Cyber Monday week arrived. For one day only, it dropped to almost half the price of any other store. A selection of HDTVs, which hit all-time price lows after mail-in rebates, also won the hearts of the DealNews public. That list included the cheapest new 40-inch 1080p LED LCD HDTV we'd seen to date.
Honorable Mention
eBay (EBAY): 76 Editors' Choice Deals
It may not be quite fair to include eBay in our ranking, since the deals are actually offered by a multitude of sellers, but we'd be remiss if we didn't at least give the store an honorable mention. Three-quarters of eBay's Editors' Choice deals were listed during Black Friday week, the most popular of which saw the Microsoft (MSFT) Surface 32GB RT Tablet drop by $100 to hit an all-time low. Cyber Monday saw a comparatively low number of deals marked with the honor.
The Best Black Friday Deals Breakdown
How, exactly, does DealNews deem something to be Editors' Choice? Throughout the year, the staff will pick only the cream of the crop of the daily deals to honor with this label, which means that the item is at or close to an all-time low price, or is receiving a notable or rare discount.
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