Black Friday & Thanksgiving Day are both promising big bargains this year! (Shutterstock.com/Johnkworks)
Hello there, shoppers! If you’re bent on bagging some big-time bargains during the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season, to commence in just a few days, here’s hoping you’re resting up now. Black Friday starts a day early this year at many stores — yup, Turkey Day, before many are even expected to come out of their food comas.
That includes Leesburg Corner Premium Outlets; while Midnight Madness is planned, as in years past, some stores will be opening as early as 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Other stores opening on Thursday include Walmart, which will be opening at 10 p.m.
While it would be virtually impossible to send you all of details on the deluge of deals, here are the high points, including a few pointers on staying ahead of the pack:
The city streets, anti-mall experience:
Head to Old Town Alexandria. Many stores in the Old Town Boutique District are offering 30-percent savings from 6-8 a.m., 20-percent savings from 8-10 a.m. and 10-percent savings the rest of the day. And every OTBD shop has something very special in store. Some discounts are even bigger; for instance, Treat is offering 40-percent savings from 8-10 a.m. Plus, the city is offering free parking on Black Friday at all city-owned garages and lots, with many opening at 6 a.m. Stick around until 7 p.m. for the tree lighting and other fun holiday festivities.
FREE PARKING HOURS: Market Square Garage, 108 N. Fairfax St., open 6 a.m. on Friday until 6 a.m. on Saturday; Courthouse Square Garage, 111 S. Pitt St., open 6 a.m. Friday until 3 a.m. Saturday; Thompson’s Alley Garage, 10 Thompson’s Alley, open 6 a.m. until 11 p.m. on Friday; N. Union St. Garage, 220 N. Union St., open 6 a.m. on Friday until 2:30 a.m. on Saturday; S. Henry St. Lot, 112 S. Henry St., from 6 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Friday; Cameron/ Saint Asaph St. Lot, 210 N. Saint Asaph St., from 6 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. on Friday.
The mega-mall experience:
Here are your Black Friday sale hours (click on the mall links for the deals):
Fair Oaks Mall: 6 a.m.-10 p.m.
Fashion Center at Pentagon City: 5 a.m.- 10 p.m.
Dulles Town Center: Some stores will open as early as 5 a.m. (the rest at 6 a.m.) and as late as 11 p.m. (the rest at 10 p.m.)
Tysons Corner Center: Midnight madness, baby!
Tysons Galleria: Even the Galleria is opening early for the super-sale action, at 9 a.m., will be open until 9 p.m. And don’t miss the opening of the Gingerbread Wonderland Store, brought to us by The Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner, at 2 p.m. The life-size Gingerbread Boutique will have a variety of delights, special gift ideas and exciting culinary creations to browse while shopping.
Something in the middle:
As far as other huge sales, don’t forget about Amazon, especially if you’d like to shop in your PJs. And for something that falls between the mega-mall experience and shopping in the OTBD, don’t forget about places like Reston Town Center, Fairfax Corner and Market Common in Clarendon. Regarding the big-box stores like Walmart, Target, Best Buy and hhgregg, you might want to take a peek at theblackfriday.com, which has links to all of the associated sales flyers. And, shoppers, make sure to have your smartphone scanners ready — mucho importante!
Oh, and how could we forget about Apple! They’ll be doling out their own Black Friday deals, but don’t expect miracles. We’re usually not talking nearly free Macs or anything like that.
Happy shopping! Stay classy!
–Natalie Kaar
