Black Friday ain’t what it used to be. “Stay at home and shop online,” a Saks exec advises, as retailers shift away from the traditional after-Thanksgiving bargain stampede to discounts spread throughout the holiday season. Most in-store deals tomorrow, especially in electronics, will be on lower-end products on the verge of obsolescence, the New York Times reports.
Discounts, especially on higher-end products, are moving online and becoming more targeted. Black Friday’s big-box reputation has more upscale retailers favoring Cyber Monday, when people go back to work and shop online, and Cyber Sunday, when people shop online from home. “Black Friday is about cheap stuff at cheap prices,” a sales expert says. “That means that high-end stuff is not on sale on Black Friday. It just isn’t.” (More Black Friday stories.)