Pre-Black Friday Sales Gear Up Amid Reports Staples Will Open Thanksgiving Night
Staples is opening on Thanksgiving for the first time this year, according to published reports and a petition posted at Change.org by a Staples employee at a Tampa store. Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only two holidays of the year that the chain has closed in prior years, the employee said.
According to the staffer, who did not give a name, “Staples just announced suddenly to employees like me, and with no prior warning in the form of a corporate Memo OR a store-wide meeting with the General Manager, that the company plans to open at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving night.” The employee said Staples locations will close at 1 a.m. on Friday and reopen for Black Friday at 6 a.m. Staples didn’t immediately comment. The petition had 3,546 signatures Tuesday afternoon.
An h.h. gregg “pre-Black Friday” sale will run this week starting Thursday, with prices valid through Saturday, according to deals website BFAds. In a scan of the h.h. gregg circular, featured TV deals included a 32-inch LG TV for 34 percent off to $229; a Haier 40-inch LED-lit TV for $299, down from $429; and $499 for a Samsung 51-inch 720p plasma TV, down from $549. A Toshiba 16-inch laptop with Intel Celeron processor and 4 GB RAM is $80 off to $299.
As promised on its recent earnings call, h.h. gregg launched a new look at hhgregg.com for mobile devices. An email blast sent out Tuesday afternoon promised “products, offers and sales,” along with “quick-touch checkout.” At the website Tuesday, the retailer offered employee family pricing storewide, 30-day price matching in store and online, five percent off purchases of $497 and up made with the h.h. gregg credit card and free shipping on orders of $29.99 and higher. A featured TV deal Tuesday was a Sharp 60-inch LED-lit LCD TV selling at $997.77, down from $1,299.99.
Also in a BFAds listing, the Lowe’s Black Friday ad circular shows the Iris Safe & Secure Kit home monitoring starter kit marked down $30 to $149.
Among the noteworthy items in Hammacher Schlemmer’s holiday gift guide, released Tuesday, are personal photo printing products. An iPhone printer, priced at $159.95, is more than double the price of one Canon Selphy photo printer at Amazon. The somewhat dated printer has a 30-pin dock for an iPhone 4, but iPhone 5s, Android phones and tablets must connect via a user’s Lightning, micro-USB or tablet cable, according to the product description. A wireless iPhone printer is available for $219.95. The catalog also includes a $279.95 Polaroid digital photo camera that produces 2x3-inch photos from a 10-megapixel sensor. The Polaroid camera uses patented paper embedded with colored dye crystals rather than “messy” ink cartridges, the caption says. Also at Hammacher Schlemmer, we counted more than 30 accessories for tablets and smartphones including a one-year smartphone backup battery ($49); numerous charging devices, stands and cases; an iPad pocket projector ($249.95); and an iPad-to-foosball converter ($99.95) with eight handles and legs.