HOUSTON — Black Friday shopping used to be so easy. Now you have so many different days to shop, it's tough to know which days are best for what products.
You can hit the stores right now for early Black Friday deals, thanks to Walmart's Deals for Days, and Best Buy and Target's Early Black Friday sales.
You can also wait for Thanksgiving night online, or Friday morning when stores reopen with more in-person sales.
Olivia Anderson is going to do it all from home and make her purchases whenever she sees the best price.
"I mean I think it's better to go online because you can easily see the prices, and easily see all the sales going on," Anderson said.
Even if you plan to do most of your holiday shopping online, when should you do it?
To help make sense of it all, we turned to Joanie Demer, one of the founders of The Krazy Coupon Lady. She said holiday sales have become confusing since the pandemic ended the big rush in stores.
"The differentiator used to be Black Friday was the day you would shop in stores," Demer said. "Cyber Monday was the day to stay at home."
That's all changed since 2020. Despite all the early sales now underway, Demer said, there will always be an extra layer of savings for Black Friday.
Early Black Friday sales are great for select items, such as a particular Chromebook or Dyson vacuums. All major stores are running these early sales right now.
Thanksgiving night tends to have the best sales on electronics, such as 75-inch TVs, Xbox and Playstation consoles and headphones.
Black Friday morning offers great deals on clothing and kitchen items like mixers and air fryers, as stores like Macy's and Kohl's open early for traditional shoppers.
Cyber Monday has good travel and experience deals, along with leftover Black Friday deals on electronics. Travel Tuesday, now the day after Cyber Monday, offers more cruise and resort deals.
The bottom line, though, is don't wait. If you find a great deal on a vacuum, air fryer, or TV right now, you may want to buy it to avoid the chance it sells out on Black Friday. That way you don't waste your money.