Black Friday Spirit Flourishes Online Heading Into Holiday Weekend

Wednesday’s deals were further proof that Black Friday is no longer defined as the day after Thanksgiving, we found in a scan of websites and promotional emails. Best Buy sold out of its limited-supply deal of the day -- a $50 discount on the third-generation iPad plus a $75 Best Buy gift card and free shipping -- in its Countdown to Thanksgiving Weekend sale that began Monday. Best Buy also trotted out Wednesday an 11-inch Intel Celeron-driven Acer Aspire 1 netbook for $229. Competition for Acer deals heated up during the day: E-commerce shopping site Black Friday Ads reported that Sears would be selling a 14-inch for $219.99 on Black Friday.

In Target’s “Beat the Rush” sale, which ends Wednesday, a Garmin Nuvi 40 LM GPS unit was marked down from $149 to $99. Target sweetened the deal on a Sharp 60-inch smart TV, already discounted by $300 to $1,199, with a $100 Target gift card. For Black Friday, which starts at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving, Target’s marquee TV bargain is a $147 Apex 32-inch 720p LCD TV.

Manufacturers were jumping into the Black Friday spirit, too. Vizio announced Wednesday a limited-time sale on its E-Series 70-inch Razor LED Smart TV. The sale, which discounts the TV by $300 to $1,699, was to start at 9 p.m. PST Thanksgiving night from vizio.com and runs for as long as supplies last, the company said. The company wouldn’t say how many units have been designated for the event.

Barnes & Noble played to its retail side with an announcement Wednesday that it would take $40 off the price of the Nook Simple Touch e-reader for customers who shopped in its stores on Black Friday. According to a news release, the $59 deal, which includes a power cord valued at $9.99, is only available at the 700 Barnes & Noble bookstores, but Target showed the Simple Touch at an even better $49 Black Friday price in its circular.

Blu-ray discs have reached deep into stocking stuffer territory, we found. Amazon advertized a Deal of the Day showing The Hangover for $3.96.

Of course, the deals don’t end with Black Friday, and lines are starting to blur where Cyber Week begins and ends. Walmart got a jump on Cyber Monday when it announced Wednesday it would run post-Black-Friday technology and toy sales Nov. 24-Dec. 2. The headliner is a $1,498 Samsung 55-inch LED TV, its price tag being stripped by $1,000. A Samsung 40-inch 1080p LED-lit LCD TV gets a $400 shave to $598, Walmart said. The retailer is taking $100 off the price of an Xbox 360 Skylanders Family Fun bundle during the sale, bringing it to $159, and a Double Power T-711 7-inch tablet will sell for $59, a $40 savings, Walmart said.