Walmart's Onn Brand Headlines TV Deals in 1st 2 Black Friday Events
Details of Walmart’s first tranche of Black Friday deals, slated for Nov. 4, emerged Monday as deals sites previewed pages filled with electronics, kitchen items and the requisite TVs. More than a month ahead of the traditional Black Friday, Nov. 27 this year, the protracted sales marathon is billed as “Black Friday Deals for Days.”
The opening spread of the eight-page virtual flyer featured Walmart’s house brand, Onn, in an $88 TV “special buy.” The 42-inch 1080p Roku TV deal would likely have been advertised in years past as a “doorbuster,” but this year’s page one deals are all online only. Second billing went to a $288 Onn 4K 65-inch Roku TV special buy. Tucked into the upper right corner are $99 Gen 2 Apple AirPods, marked down by $30.
The doorbuster catchphrase disappeared from Walmart ad vernacular this year -- amid the COVID-19 pandemic -- with social distancing and face masks now the norm. Retailers are steering holiday shoppers away from the types of mob scenes that marked early morning Black Friday sales events in the past, though Walmart hasn’t abandoned the in-store Black Friday bargain hunter completely: The first brick-and-mortar event begins on a Saturday, Nov. 7, at 5 a.m. local time, with an Acer 32-inch gaming monitor as the special buy at $155. Those deals are also available online.
Other tech deals in Walmart’s early round of Black Friday deals: an MSI GF65 gaming laptop cut by $180 to $799; an HP Pavilion i5 GTX 1650 gaming laptop for $449 ($140 off); JLab Studio noise-canceling headphones, halved to $30; JLab true wireless earbuds $10 off to $20; and an RCA 480p projector at $49 ($30 off). A Roku Ultra 4K streaming player, with voice remote, is $31 off to $48.
Health and safety are priorities in Walmart stores this shopping season, said the retailer last week (see 2010140019). For in-store Black Friday event days, customers will be directed to form a single, straight line to enter stores. Employees will distribute sanitized shopping carts to customers to help with social distancing, and “health ambassadors” will staff entrances to greet customers and "remind them to put on a mask."
Featured items in Walmart’s second round of deals, beginning online at 7 p.m. EST Nov. 11, include two special buys: an Onn 50-inch 4K Roku smart TV for $128 and a Lenovo 14-inch IdeaPad with 4GB RAM and 128 GB storage, for $149. Other online-only deals: Onn true wireless earbuds for $14, a Lenovo 8-inch tablet, $40 off to $59 and a 15-inch HP PC with Intel Core i3 processor, marked down $150 to $249. An HP 2-in-1 Chromebook will get a $120 shave to $179. Audio deals on Bluetooth speakers include the JBL Flip in a special buy at $50 and the Altec Lansing Jacket H2O, $30 off to $20. On the video side, an RCA Roku 720p projector will be a special buy at $99.