18.05.12

The wider spread of sales throughout the week, both before and after Black Friday, has another advantage for shoppers. While stores typically suspend their price matching policies on Black Friday, most will meet a competitor's advertised deal on other days this week. They may also offer a credit on an item recently purchased for the difference between the purchased price and new sale price, says Edgar Dworsky, the founder of ConsumerWorld.org .

But there's a catch, say retail experts. Many of the deals are blink-and-you'll-miss-them opportunities which are available for a few hours, or until a limited supply runs out. Here's what to look for each day now through Cyber Monday:

Tuesday

Many stores have already kicked off their Black Friday countdowns, offering one-day deals that come close to -- or in some cases beat -- their Friday prices, Mitchell says. Best Buy, for example, had a 55" LG LED HDTV Monday for $898, a 31% discount and $100 cheaper than a planned Samsung door-buster for Black Friday of comparable quality. ( M ) pushing forward the usual 5 a.m. store openings. Online shoppers will find plenty of deals at that time, too, with online-only deals and some of the same door-busters that are available in stores, says Andrew Eisner, the director of content for Retrevo.com . Despite waning interest from consumers, Black Friday is still one of the best days of the year to get bargains, he says. Anticipated deals include a $200 42" Sharp LCD HDTV at Best Buy, and a $350 HP laptop at Office Depot. But shoppers must also contend with very limited quantities of those deeply discounted items , as well as some misleading sales on older items that aren't the latest technology, Eisner says. Many of the sale Blu-ray players, for example, require shoppers to buy an extra WiFi adaptor, while laptops tend to have older, slower processors.

Source: Smartmoney.com