Hundreds of Web sites are blowing the lid off of great holiday deals for Black Friday, leaking detailed price lists days before retailers want you to know.
The blabbermouths are among a growing collection of Web sites, such as FatWallet.com and blackfriday2010.com, that collect “sale rumors” and post retailers’ unpublished drafts of sales circulars days, sometimes weeks, before Black Friday.
Want a Toshiba 15.6-inch laptop for $200? Try Best Buy where it usually sells for $450. How about a Zenith 42-inch plasma HDTV for $399? At Kmart it usually sells for $550 — but not this Friday.
A Westinghouse 40-inch LCD HDTV at Kmart that normally costs $599 is selling for $298.
Typically, stores unveil their hottest deals of the year in big-bucks advertisements on Thanksgiving. The hope is to whip consumers into a frenzy for the next day — one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
The leaks come from store employees, publishers given prototype ads, rivals and even retailers themselves looking to take advantage of some free advertising, say the Web site owners.
“Usually the excitement about Black Friday sales was because no one knew what the deals were until the advertisements came on Thanksgiving Day,” says National Retail Federation rep, Kathy Grannis. “These Web sites have sort of ruined that.”
The deal squealers don’t limit their tittle-tattle to just big national chains either. New York boutiques also turned up on some lists this year.
At designer Norma Kamali’s “$200 and under sale” at its West 56th Street store, shoppers can nab her iconic “Sleeping Bag Coat” for a fraction of the $650 it usually sells for.
Web snitches say beloved Brooklyn bridal-gown retailer Lotus Bridal is offering wedding dresses ranging from $99 to $799, bridesmaid dresses for $49 and shoes starting at $19.
Wal-Mart is offering steals on a Magnavox Blu-ray player, which usually sells for $118. Come Friday it will cost only $69.
Need appliances? A Dyson upright vacuum cleaner, which would usually set you back $400, can be had at Sears for just $220, while Kohl’s is offering a KitchenAid mixer for $129, down from $250.