Black Friday Bargains at Walmart, Targets Near Livingston Spark Controversy

Planning on lining up for Black Friday blowouts in the wee hours of Friday morning? If so, you might have already missed some of the area’s biggest sales. Looking for a big box store bargain near Livingston? Big-name retailers such as Target and Walmart, have already posted their Black Friday advertisements, with plans to release some door-busters on Thanksgiving.

Walmart

Walmart’s 40-page Black Friday ad features three door buster “while supplies last” events. The first is Thanksgiving Day at 6 p.m., followed by an 8 p.m. event, and another at 6 a.m. Friday. There is a Walmart less than 5 miles away from Livingston in Cedar Knolls. The closest location after that is in Union on Route 22.

Electronics lead the way with a 50-inch Vizio television for $218. Xbox Ones and PS4s are also discounted.

Target

Target’s Black Friday ad features hundreds of video games will be 50 percent off, dolls for $5, movies for $4, kids pajamas for $5 – and that’s just a sampling. The closest Target to Livingston is in East Hanover, followed by Vauxhall in Union.

Mall Stores

If you’re planning on skipping the food coma and heading out for a bargain on Thanksgiving instead, you might want to brave the mall crowds. For the first time in history, the Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus - the state’s largest mall - will be open on Thanksgiving night for the first time in history, NJ.com reports.

Closing for the Holiday

With internet ads and flyers generating enormous buzz from holiday shoppers, prompting some shoppers to begin camping out weeks before the sales, other large retailers — Costco, Sam’s Club, Nordstrom, GameStop and others — have announced that stores will actually be closed during the holiday.

“Our employees work especially hard during the holiday season and we simply believe that they deserve the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with their families,” a Costco(COST) spokesman told the website Think Progress.

While the choice to remain closed and allow employees to spend the holiday with families may be honorable, a survey conducted by Accenture of 2014 holiday shopping patterns shows that 45 percent of consumers will shop on Thanksgiving with half going to stores between 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving day and 5 a.m. on Black Friday.