Black Friday (& Anti-Black Friday) Survival Guide

Are you game for waking up at 4 am to crowd yourself into a big box store on Black Friday just to max out your credit card while saving $10 on an HDTV?

After family arguments and trying to determine what to do with all of that leftover turkey, the annual sales are just about as big a Thanksgiving tradition as we have in America.

So if you are into finding the best deals on Friday, here’s some resources for you so you don’t have track down every single Black Friday deal on your own.

Black Friday 2016 Deals

• $9 Giants Tickets: Many games for 2017 baseball season on sale for $9 from Nov. 21 t0 Dec. 24, 2017
• Union Square: Black Friday events & sales in Union Square
• A Full Cup: Huge resource of user submitted Black Friday deals
• Slick Deals: Black Friday buyer’s guide, ad scans, and editor’s best picks
• Apple: Black Friday is back at Apple; first time since 2014
• Amazon – Black Friday week deals with new deals every 5 minutes
• Ambiance – Thanksgiving weekend sale starting off at 8:30 am on Black Friday with 50% off sale items
• BlackFriday.fm – Gigantic list of Black Friday deals broken down by category (appliances, cell phones, digital cameras, etc)
• Forbes’ Best of eBay Black Friday deals – Forbes’ star buys found on eBay
• Timbuk2’s “Bike Friday” – First 50 customers will get a free Hidden Messenger Bag ($40 value) with purchase
• Plaid Friday & Hiero Pop-up – Love Oakland? Shop local. Plus Hieroglyphics will be hosting an in-person pop-up shop

Black Friday Shopping Tips & Resources

• Consumer Reports: Free shopping apps for Black Friday Deals
• 25 Secret Black Friday Shopping Tips – From consumer advocate Clark Howard
• CNN: Deal or No Deal? Test your bargain-hunting skills
• Black Friday Free Stuff: Free items offered on Black Friday including 100% free, free after rebate, and free with purchase deals
• What Time Does Each Store Open?: List of biggest retailers and what time their Black Friday deals begin
• Black Friday Sales Online Right Now: Get a head start at Walmart, Staples, Target and Best Buy

Anti-Black Friday

• Buy Nothing Day: Occupy Xmas with this anti-shopping annual “event”
• Small Business Saturday: Shop local at small businesses on Saturday- AMEX has a big list of small businesses with 2x rewards
• Green Friday – 13,000 Free Day Passes at California State Parks
• OptOutside Day – A list of 100+ Bay Area Parks open for Black Friday
• Patagonia Donating 100% of its Black Friday Sales – Over $2 million donated to grassroots environmental groups