Retailers’ 2018 Black Friday deals could be best in years
From high-definition TVs to refrigerators and other appliances, consumers this year may find some of the best post-Thanksgiving bargains on common household items that retailers have offered in recent memory.
Q. We need a new television set for our home. Some of our local stores are already offering “Pre-Black Friday” sale prices on some really nice TV sets and even full wall-unit consoles, but we know you are plugged in to that kind of stuff.
So, do we buy the TV now, or wait until the day after Thanksgiving?
A. I would wait until Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, to buy a new television set for your home.
Some of the best deals will be on ultra-high-resolution 4K TV sets.
“Look for ‘doorbuster’ deals to feature 49-inch 4K TVs for just $175, while 55inch units could hit the shelves of stores like Target for around $250,” said Donna Doyle, a shopping expert at bargainhunting website DealNews.com.
Best Buy is another large retailer that will offer cut-rate prices on a variety of televisions, Doyle said.
Black Friday will also be the best time of the year to buy a new refrigerator and most other types of large appliances.
“Chest freezers sold for $100 at Sam’s Club last year, and you’ll find the best deals on washers, dryers and dishwashers at Home Depot and Lowe’s,” Doyle said. “In fact, they’re already cutting up to 40 percent off this month for their Black Friday appliance sales.”
You’ll also likely see the best prices of the year on several lines of vacuum cleaners, as well as “smart-home” devices such as Amazon’s Echo Dot and Echo Plus and the Apple HomePod.
Doyle said that Kohl’s and Macy’s should be the best spots for top deals on slow cookers and other small kitchen appliances, while Walmart will likely offer the best bargains on cookware.
REAL ESTATE TRIVIA
The 100 million or so Americans who plan to shop on Black Friday will spend an average of $472, according to experts at BlackFriday.com. Men are more likely than women to splurge by spending $1,200 or more, perhaps to outfit their “man cave” with a fancier TV and other cool electronic gadgets.
Q. There’s a TV ad that says about 200 homes are destroyed each year by homeowners who try to deep-fry their Thanksgiving turkey.
Is this true?
A. Yes, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
The NFPA also notes that Thanksgiving Day is what it euphemistically calls the “leading day” for U.S. home-cooking fires, with blazes four times more likely to break out on the third Thursday of November than any other day of the year.
There are several reasons why kitchens or outdoor cooking areas are more likely to catch fire on Turkey Day.
The host might leave an oven or stove unattended while mingling with guests, or simply drop an oven mitt or wooden spoon too close to a burner. Many are busy watching football games on TV, and well, booze is sometimes involved.
But deep fryers are among the biggest culprits of cooking-related fires on Thanksgiving, the NFPA reports, and the group flatly suggests that most amateur chefs should not try preparing their gobbler in hot oil.
A note on the group’s website, www. nfpa.org, states:
“The NFPA continues to believe that turkey fryers that use cooking oil, as currently designed, are not suitable for safe use by even a well-informed and careful consumer. These turkey fryers use a substantial quantity of cooking oil at high temperatures, and units currently available for home use pose a significant danger that hot oil will be released at some point during the cooking process. In addition, the burners that heat the oil can ignite spilled oil.”
Possible results of a turkey-frying session gone wrong can include not just destruction of property but, worse, serious burns or even death.
The NFPA suggests that those who just can’t resist the call of a delicious deepfried turkey dine at a restaurant or buy a ready-to-eat fried turkey from a store, where the birds have been prepared by trained professionals.
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