Issue 47.13
Black Friday is considered to be the day after Thanksgiving. The “black” connotation is that businesses that have been running in the red (losing money or not making a profit) all year will finally break into the black (profitability) with the massive number of sales on the busiest shopping day of the year. While the term often has no relationship to reality, it is still used for that day. It has also expanded and is being used to cover a number of other weekend sales such as the last Friday of each month, etc. Tiger Direct (an online electronics store) has 72 hour black Friday sales almost every month. It’s all marketing to offer discounts and get you to buy lots of stuff. Add in stores that are opening Thanksgiving evening (I am not a fan of this trend), “Small Business Saturday”, “CyberMonday”, “On-Line Monday” and “Technology Tuesday” and other such incentives and you get a very busy week of crazy spending and some very good deals.
I am going to highlight a few of the best BF deals I have found, but check your local paper and mailbox for local deals that may be kept secret until the last moment. Realize that you may have to arrive at specific times or wait in line for limited numbers of these items.
Wal-Mart has the IPhone 5C for $45 (with a new two year commitment) and includes a $75 gift card.
Target has a 40 inch TV for $199, a 7 inch 8 Gig Nook HD for $79, the 16 Gig IPad Air with Wi-Fi for $479 and Mini for $299 and they include a $100 or $75 gift card as well.
BestBuy has a Toshiba 15.6 inch laptop for $349 with an i3 processor and good memory and HD. They also have less powerful Asus and Dell laptops for $249 and $177 respectively (all with Windows 8) as well as 16 Gig Flash drives for $6 and the Chromecast for $29.99.
Dell Corp. has a touch screen laptop with Windows 8 for only $379. The processor, memory and screen (11 inch) are all low end, but if you are on a budget it may be a good fit. Another is their backpack laptop carry case for only $19.95. Amazon and TigerDirect are also good sources for holiday deals that you don’t have to stand in line for since all your shopping at these three is on-line.
Sadly, most of the sources I have looked at are not making good deals on Windows 7 computers, even though a majority of my customers would rather have 7 than 8. To get Windows 7, it still works best to go through a reputable dealer (like me!) that can get them for you or build them. If you are going to upgrade from XP but don’t want Windows 8, give me a call and I can either get you what you want or upgrade what you have. XP support is disappearing soon so this may be a good time to change. In the meantime, remember to always back up anything that is important to you.
Shaun McCausland has worked in the computer industry for over 32 years, 23 years of it locally with Bits ‘N’ Bytes and Musicomp and currently does in-home and on-site computer consultation, service, training and repair. If you have questions you can reach him at 435-668-7118 or his website www.bitsnbytescomputers.com.