We’re NerdWallet Deal Experts, and Here’s Our Black Friday Take

Hi! I’m Amanda.

I’m Tommy.

And we’re deal experts! (Can you hear us shouting it in unison?)

We gave ourselves the title, but we do know deals. We literally shop for a living, scouring the internet for the best discounts during the biggest sale periods of the year. Since we work at NerdWallet, we try to be smart with our spending decisions, even when the Black Friday hype hits the fan.

We’ve covered major shopping events for more than four years, including Black Friday and Prime Day.

We tracked prices on everyone’s favorite tech, home and toy items for years to see if Black Friday prices fulfilled those retailer promises.

We’ve spoken with dozens of industry experts in the retail and shopping spaces, along with academics who study supply chains, tariffs, marketing strategies and more.

Come along with us as we chat about all things Black Friday (Nov. 28) – how we’re feeling about the deals, what economic factors might come into play as you shop, and what’s on our lists this year.

How are we feeling about Black Friday this year?

Amanda Barroso

Amanda: My first thought is…I’m a little bored? We just came off of

Amazon’s October Prime Big Deal Days sale and all the other competing retailer sales. I just sort of wonder what’s going to be new, you know? I do look forward to seeing what some of the smaller, local shops have to offer. How are you feeling about it?

Tommy: I’m overwhelmed. That’s the word. I like saving money, but I find all these early deals exhausting.

Amanda: It’s funny, just logging on Instagram, Tiktok — it does feel a little bit like we’re being inundated with gift guides and hauls from all sides.

Tommy: Sometimes I wonder if I would rather just spend an extra $20 on everything for all of this hype to go away? I’ll pay full price if they just leave me alone.

Amanda: With three kids, I don’t know if you could afford that!

Tommy: True.

Is there really a best time to buy?

Amanda: This is the question we return to every year at Black Friday. Is there really a best time to buy, or has that idea become a myth?

Tommy: Paying attention to prices is more important than timing, I’d say. You can get a sense for what’s a good deal by just looking at the price history. And as we’ve seen, good prices come and go whether sales are happening or not.

Amanda: I track products, too. I add items to my cart and check in every couple days to see what the price is. That helps me, because when the actual Black Friday sales happen, I can spot a real deal or just hype.

Tommy: I’m like you — I save items I want in my cart and watch. I know how low the price has gone in the past. I get it when a good deal strikes.

Amanda: I’m always surprised when I see a lower price the week before a big sale than during the actual sale.

New technologies allow retailers to change prices by the day, hour or minute. That can be really frustrating, and it’s a lot different than previous Black Friday pricing models.

I can remember waking up early the day after Thanksgiving with my mom and driving to Best Buy to get in line to buy a DVD player. I might be aging myself, but that memory feels really different from what Black Friday shopping is like today.

Tommy: Is it weird that I miss those days? Now browser extensions make it easy to spot truly low prices. That said, those who don’t get a kick out of all the research can go into Black Friday knowing there will be lots of great deals.

Amanda: True — but they might also get caught up and overspend, too. I think the best thing you can do is have a list of your ‘must haves’ and track those in the weeks leading up to a big sale.

Is it still worth shopping on actual Black Friday?

Amanda: Black Friday gives planners like me a hard deadline. You’ve got to get those gifts wrapped and under the tree. There’s an urgency to it that motivates me.

Tommy: If you’re the person in your household who buys the gifts, it is helpful to have a focused day where you can get it done. So that whole Black Friday weekend, starting with Thanksgiving day and ending on Cyber Monday, is still very relevant for that.

And as we’ve seen in the price-tracking research we’ve done for NerdWallet, Black Friday weekend often wins the year for the best price on lots of items, especially tech devices and kitchen gadgets.

Amanda: Some people really thrive under the pressure. They like the Lightning Deal with only three minutes left. That is part of the thrill. They want to wake up the morning after Thanksgiving and see what they can score.

How has covering big sales changed our perspective on shopping?

Amanda: We’ve known each other for four years, and I would say that writing about shopping has really changed you.

Tommy: Yeah, I think it has. It’s funny because I’m now painfully aware of how these heavily marketed sale events can hook us, yet I still struggle to avoid impractical, impulsive purchases. I get more mad at myself, though, because I know when I make a wrong move.

Here’s an example. I covered the launch of the new iPhone 17 models in October, and was pretty taken with the new tech and designs. However, my sage advice was, ‘Don’t buy it if you have a good enough phone,’ and my iPhone 13 Pro Max is as good as new.

What did I do? I let desire win, ordered a new iPhone Air, and hated myself for the couple days I had it. Eventually, I sent it back.

How has it changed you? Because you’ve always been a planner.

Amanda: I’ve learned a lot by covering these sales. Like you, I definitely think about shopping more than I normally would. So my big question to myself is: What am I going to do with what I know now?

I’ve chosen to become more prepared, more focused on buying just the things that feel worthwhile and trying not to get caught up in whatever the trend is. And I’ve leaned into shopping secondhand. This year I’m mixing thrifted gifts with some new ones for my kids.

Tommy: I do find myself buying and selling on Facebook Marketplace more. If I buy something new, I try to sell something I don’t need anymore. So I think this work has made me more conscious of my spending. But thank goodness for free returns.

Are we using AI to shop this year?

Tommy: Nah. I’m not big on AI for shopping yet, but I could see that coming down the road. Keepa and CamelCamelCamel are as fancy as I get right now, for tracking prices. How about you?

Amanda: I used AI for Prime Day to help with shopping lists for birthdays and events I had coming up. But I’m still waiting for the next best AI thing for shopping. I did download Honey, a browser extension that automatically finds coupon codes for you before checkout, which I love. If there’s something I want to keep an eye on, I’ll add it to my watch list and Honey will send me an email letting me know the price just dropped.

Any major sales or retailers to watch?

Amanda: I’m looking forward to some of the smaller retailers I like — a stationery store, some smaller kids brands and some clean beauty products I’ve had my eye on. What about you?

Tommy: I’m looking for Labubus; just Labubus.

Kidding! I’m after clothes for my wife and mom, and I like grabbing deals on those on actual Black Friday. I’ll browse online at stores like Gap, American Eagle, Old Navy, and some of the higher-end brands, like Vuori, for good bargains. I’ll be doing this all in PJs, with my coffee in hand, of course.

What challenges should shoppers watch out for?

Amanda: Watch out for the big changes afoot in credit scoring. This summer, FICO announced that it will include buy now, pay later purchases in some of its credit scoring models. BNPL has become a popular way to buy, and I’m nervous to see how it’s going to affect credit scores in the new year.

Tommy: I’m still concerned about tariffs, because I’m not sure that I’ve seen the full impact yet. So, rising prices and the potential for inventory shortages worry me, but it’s not going to drive me to panic buy.

This is a small example, but I was looking up a gift for my son on Amazon — a Paw Patrol Pillow Pet — and there was a note that I had previously purchased this item in 2019 as a gift for someone else.

Out of curiosity, I checked the invoice — it was $19 in 2019 and it will cost me $36 to buy it this year. The price has doubled in six years.

Tommy: Yikes. And like you said, subtle increases across many categories can really impact budgets overall.

Amanda: As parents with young children, I wonder if our kids even remember what they got last year for Christmas? Probably not, right? This could be a chance for families to think about what it means to make holiday magic. Maybe it’s with gifts, but maybe it’s reimagining the holidays in a way that feels right for our budgets.

Tommy: Maybe someone I know will get me an iPhone Air. 🙏

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