Business & Tech

Big Box vs. Going Local: Where Will You Shop on Black Friday? (POLL)

Shoppers will have plenty of choices come Friday. Where do you plan on spending your money?

The Black Friday conversations started long before Black Friday and they're likely to continue long after as well. With so much talk about how to spend our hard-earned dollars, it begs the question, where will you spend them, too?

Stores large and small will be promoting specials and sales to go along with Black Friday. Whether they're a small, locally owned business or a large "big box" chain, vendors will be vying for your dollars.

Walmart has announced it would open its doors at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 22, and offer holiday doorbusters while supplies last. They included deals on TVs, iPads, an electric scooter for $79 and a steam mop for $39.

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Not to be outdone, Target and Best Buy are also planned all-out holiday shopping assaults.

Target's deals began at 9 p.m. Thursday. According to an ad leaked online, its best deals were for TVs, a Nook tablet, a Nikon camera and an Xbox 360 Kinect bundle.

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At Best Buy, doors opened at midnight. Doorbusters include deals on TVs, phones and Samsung laptop bundles.

Walmart offered its biggest deals from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving night. The store planned to offer three items at low prices—an iPad, a TV and a Blu-ray player.

Some customers and employees aren’t happy about Black Friday's incursion on a national holiday. There are Facebook pages that urge customers to boycott stores open on Thanksgiving.

An employee who says she has worked at Target started a Change.org petition that has drawn 200,000 signatures. And there have been reports that a group of Wal-Mart employees are planning walkouts on Black Friday, the Washington Post reported.

Amidst all of this, the viral "Small Business Saturday" movement continues to take hold, attracting local businesses to promote their specials via social networking. Small Business Saturday is “a day to celebrate and support small businesses and all they do for their communities,” the U.S. Small Business Administration explains on its website.

American Express gets the credit for founding the shopping holiday, which got its official start on Nov. 27, 2010, according to the Small Business Saturday Facebook page. Celebrating its third year on Nov. 24, the event drew over 100 million people last year, according to the Small Business Saturday website.

To find local retailers that take part in the promotion, just visit the Small Business Saturday website, click on “Find Out Where To Shop” in the menu at the top of the screen and type in your ZIP code.

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Roseville readers, where will you be spending your money this Black Friday? Do you even participate? Let us know how you're making your decision in the comments below.


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