Best Doorbuster Deals on Thanksgiving Day 2015

published 26 November 2015

Big box retailers and e-commerce sites are gearing up for the many shoppers who plan to skip out early on Thanksgiving dinner to cross off items on their holiday shopping lists. In an effort to rack up sales before Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, retailers will try to lure consumers with exclusive in-store doorbuster deals on Turkey Day. According to the National Retail Federation, holiday shoppers are expected to spend $630.5 billion during November and December, up 3.7% from 2014.

See Our Slide Show: 14 Things Not to Buy During the Holidays

We asked several shopping experts -- BFAds.net's David Varble, DealNews.com's Benjamin K. Glaser, NerdWallet.com's Katrina Chan, and RetailMeNot.com's Trae Bodge -- to give us the lowdown on which Thanksgiving Day doorbuster deals are worth braving the in-store crowds or stalking your favorite online shop. Keep in mind that most of these deeply discounted doorbusters will be available in limited quantities starting Thursday, November 26. Also, they usually must be purchased in-store -- unless noted otherwise -- but it never hurts to check online prices and availability before you venture out.

Amazon Fire Tablet 7-Inch Display with Wi-Fi (8GB), $35, available at Amazon.com: Bodge points out that the latest version of Amazon's popular Fire tablet will be on sale Thanksgiving Day at a $15 discount (regular price: $50). Customers who purchase the tablet will get access to Amazon Underground, an app store with games (including free game add-ons, such as extra lives and unlocked levels), 38 million movies, TV shows, songs and books. See more of Amazon's holiday shopping deals.

Subscribe to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance

Be a smarter, better informed investor.

Save up to 74%

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/hwgJ7osrMtUWhk5koeVme7-200-80.png

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters

Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.

Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.

Element 50-Inch LED HDTV With 1080p Resolution, $240, available at Target: One of the best deals on electronics you'll find on Thanksgiving Day is on larger TVs of varying sizes and brands, Glaser suggests. Starting at 6 p.m., Target shoppers can pick up this off-brand television set for $200 less than the regular price. "This 50-inch TV is currently the lowest price we've seen on a 1080p television of that size, beating out a similar set advertised at Walmart," he adds. See a preview of Target's Thanksgiving holiday weekend sale.

Fitbit Flex Wristband, $59, available at Walmart.com: Walmart has switched up its approach to holiday "doorbuster" deals by practically doing away with them altogether. The majority of their Thanksgiving weekend deals will be available online starting at 12:01 a.m. Pacific time on November 26. One of their noteworthy offers, Chan mentions, is on the Fitbit Flex wristband. It's regularly priced at $99, but will be discounted 40%. See more of Walmart's Thanksgiving Day shopping deals.

LEGO sets, starting at $55, available at Target: For parents looking to stock up on hot-ticket toys for their kids, you can find some of the best deals on items such as LEGO building block sets at big box retailers. In fact, "[You'll] see huge discounts on LEGOs with a savings of as much as 60% off . . . and are best-of-the-year prices," Glaser says. At Target, for example, LEGO's Creator, Movie and City building sets will be on sale for $55 (regularly priced between $80 and $90).

Carrera RC Remote Control Video Streaming Drone, $60, available at Toys 'R' Us: You'll typically find better deals on toys the closer it gets to Christmas, but you also run the risk of a highly coveted item selling out if you wait too long. If you must purchase toy items on Thanksgiving Day, Toys 'R' Us has a slew of noteworthy doorbuster deals starting at 5 p.m., Chan says. TheToyInsider.com's 2015 hot holiday toy guide includes a toy video drone by Skyrocket that retails for $90. We found that Toys ‘R’ Us will have a similar toy drone model by Carrera RC for sale on Thanksgiving Day at 50% off (it's regularly priced at $120). Also, you can get early access to over 100 holiday toy deals at Toys 'R' Us by joining their Rewards 'R' Us program.

Topics

Kip Tips Smart Buying

Browne Taylor joined Kiplinger in 2011 and was a channel editor for Kiplinger.com covering living and family finance topics. She previously worked at the Washington Post as a Web producer in the Style section and prior to that covered the Jobs, Cars and Real Estate sections. She earned a BA in journalism from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She is Director of Member Services, at the National Association of Home Builders.