# When Do Black Friday Prices Drop? The 2026 Timeline > When do Black Friday prices drop? 2025's timeline from mid-November events to Cyber Monday, the 2026 calendar, and a script to find each item's low day. - URL: https://datatooly.xyz/guides/thanksgiving-black-friday-price-drop-timeline/ - Author: Omar Eldeeb (https://datatooly.xyz/about/) - Published: 2026-10-20 - Updated: 2026-10-20 - Free tool: [E-commerce price tracker — scrape product prices, stock and variants](https://datatooly.xyz/ecommerce-price-tracker/) - Tags: ecommerce, python, datascience, shopping Black Friday prices don't drop on one day. In 2025, Walmart's first Black Friday event started November 14, Amazon's Black Friday Week November 20, Target's event November 23, and Walmart's main event went live online on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, with deals running through Cyber Monday. For 2026 (Thanksgiving November 26, Black Friday November 27), check daily from early November and see when each product actually hits its low. This guide lays out the 2025 timeline from primary sources, maps it onto the 2026 calendar, and gives a script that reads your daily price snapshots and tells you the day each product reached its season low. ## The 2025 timeline | Date (2025) | Day | What happened | Source | |---|---|---|---| | Nov 13, 7 p.m. ET | Thu | Walmart+ early access to Walmart's Deals Event 1 | [Walmart](https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2025/10/27/walmart-announces-2025-black-friday-deals-events-wrapped-in-the-magic-of-whoknewville) | | Nov 14 – 16 | Fri – Sun | Walmart Black Friday Deals Event 1, online and in stores | Walmart | | Nov 20, 12:01 a.m. PST | Thu | Amazon's US Black Friday Week starts, running through Dec 1 | [Amazon](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/when-is-black-friday-2025) | | Nov 23 – 29 | Sun – Sat | Target's Black Friday event | [Target](https://corporate.target.com/press/release/2025/11/target-transforms-black-friday-into-an-experience-with-deep-deals,-exclusive-launches-and-surprise-g) | | Nov 25 – 27 | Tue – Thu | Walmart Deals Event 2, online only | Walmart | | Nov 27 | Thu | Thanksgiving: $6.4 billion US online spending | [Adobe](https://news.adobe.com/news/2025/12/adobe-cyber-monday-hits-record) | | Nov 28 | Fri | Black Friday: $11.8 billion online, up 9.1% year on year; Walmart Event 2 opens in stores (to Nov 30) | Adobe, Walmart | | Nov 29 – 30 | Sat – Sun | Weekend: Adobe says "earlier deals drove record spending over the weekend"; Target's Cyber Monday event opens Nov 30 | Adobe, Target | | Dec 1 | Mon | Cyber Monday: $14.25 billion online, Walmart's Cyber Monday event (online only) | Adobe, Walmart | | After Dec 1 | | Adobe: "After Cyber Week, discounts will come down from their peaks" | Adobe | Adobe's spending figures are for all US online retail, not for any one store. And spending isn't price: a busy day can be a busy day because people waited for payday, not because prices were lowest. The table tells you when deals were *available*, not when a given product was cheapest. ## What that suggests for 2026 None of these retailers has announced 2026 dates as of October 20, 2026. In 2025, Walmart published its event dates on October 27, and Target's detailed Black Friday release came out on November 20. Expect 2026 announcements between late October and mid-November. If retailers keep the same weekday offsets from Thanksgiving (an assumption, not an announcement), 2026 would look like this: | 2025 event | Days before Thanksgiving | Same offset in 2026 | |---|---|---| | Walmart Event 1 starts (Fri Nov 14) | 13 | Fri Nov 13 | | Amazon Black Friday Week starts (Thu Nov 20) | 7 | Thu Nov 19 | | Target Black Friday event starts (Sun Nov 23) | 4 | Sun Nov 22 | | Walmart Event 2 online (Tue Nov 25) | 2 | Tue Nov 24 | | Thanksgiving | 0 | Thu Nov 26 | | Black Friday | −1 | Fri Nov 27 | | Cyber Monday | −4 | Mon Nov 30 | So a baseline that starts by late October is clean: it's before every 2025 event. A tracker that only starts in the week of Thanksgiving has no "before" to compare with. ## Why you have to measure it yourself "Prices drop on Black Friday" is an average. Product by product, the low can come earlier, later, or not at all. Which?, the UK consumer group, looked at 227 tech and appliance deals from Black Friday 2023 and found that "every one of the 'deals' we checked was available for the same price or less" at other times in the six months before or after, and around four in 10 were cheaper at some other point ([Which?, 26 Nov 2024](https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/black-friday-deals-exposed-as-duds-aoK6u3j2suyu)). That's UK retailers and one year, but it shows that the "best day" is product-specific. The way to find it is a daily price snapshot per product from late October to early December. The [Black Friday price tracker guide](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/black-friday-price-tracker/) sets that up with a scheduled run of [E-commerce Product Scraper Pro](https://apify.com/constructive_calm/ecommerce-product-scraper-pro?fpr=v77kxu) on Amazon, Walmart and Target, and exports the history to a `price_history.csv` file with these columns: ```text scrapedAt,site,url,name,price,originalPrice,currency,inStock,seller,changeType,previousPrice ``` ## Find the day each product hit its low The script below works on that file. It takes the lowest price per product per US Eastern day (so it copes with several runs a day), fills in unchanged days (with `onlyChanges`, a product only appears on days its price or stock changed), and reports the first day each product reached its season low, how long the low lasted, and which phase of the season that day falls in. ```python import csv import sys from collections import Counter, defaultdict from datetime import date, datetime, timedelta from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo # Windows: pip install tzdata ET = ZoneInfo("America/New_York") START, END = date(2026, 10, 21), date(2026, 12, 7) PHASES = [ # (first day, label) for the 2026 season; edit as retailers announce dates (date(2026, 10, 21), "baseline (before Nov 1)"), (date(2026, 11, 1), "early November"), (date(2026, 11, 13), "pre-Thanksgiving events"), (date(2026, 11, 26), "Thanksgiving Day"), (date(2026, 11, 27), "Black Friday"), (date(2026, 11, 28), "weekend"), (date(2026, 11, 30), "Cyber Monday"), (date(2026, 12, 1), "after Cyber Monday"), ] def phase(d): return [label for start, label in PHASES if d >= start][-1] # Lowest price seen per product per US-Eastern day (handles several runs a day). lows = defaultdict(dict) names = {} for r in csv.DictReader(open(sys.argv[1], encoding="utf-8")): if not r["price"]: continue day = datetime.fromisoformat(r["scrapedAt"].replace("Z", "+00:00")).astimezone(ET).date() p = float(r["price"]) lows[r["url"]][day] = min(p, lows[r["url"]].get(day, p)) names[r["url"]] = r["name"] tally = Counter() for url, by_day in lows.items(): earlier = [d for d in by_day if d < START] series, last, d = {}, (by_day[max(earlier)] if earlier else None), START while d <= END: # carry the price forward over unchanged days last = by_day.get(d, last) if last is not None: series[d] = last d += timedelta(days=1) if not series: continue low = min(series.values()) if low == max(series.values()): print(f"{names[url][:12]:<13} flat at {low:.2f} all season") continue low_days = [d for d, p in series.items() if p == low] first, last_low = low_days[0], low_days[-1] tally[phase(first)] += 1 print(f"{names[url][:12]:<13} low {low:>8.2f} first {first:%a %b %d} ({phase(first)}), " f"held {len(low_days)} day(s) until {last_low:%b %d}") print("\nProducts whose season low started in each phase:") for _, label in PHASES: print(f" {label:<26}{tally[label]}") ``` Here's the output on a made-up four-product season (the products and prices are invented to show each pattern; the file format is the real export format): ```text TV 1 low 399.99 first Thu Nov 26 (Thanksgiving Day), held 5 day(s) until Nov 30 Vacuum 2 low 179.00 first Fri Nov 13 (pre-Thanksgiving events), held 4 day(s) until Nov 16 Toy 3 low 39.99 first Mon Nov 30 (Cyber Monday), held 2 day(s) until Dec 01 Cable 4 flat at 7.97 all season Products whose season low started in each phase: baseline (before Nov 1) 0 early November 0 pre-Thanksgiving events 1 Thanksgiving Day 1 Black Friday 0 weekend 0 Cyber Monday 1 after Cyber Monday 0 ``` How to read it: - **TV 1** dropped in steps and reached its low on Thanksgiving Day, then held it through Cyber Monday. Waiting for Black Friday cost nothing, but waiting past Monday would have. - **Vacuum 2** was cheapest in an early event and never matched that price again. Its later "Black Friday" price was a smaller discount. This is the pattern the 2025 Walmart Event 1 dates make possible. - **Toy 3** kept falling until Cyber Monday. - **Cable 4** never moved. Plenty of products don't take part in the sales at all. The bottom table is the one to keep. After the season, run it on your whole watchlist and you get your own answer to "when do prices drop" for the categories you care about. Keep the file: next year you can set your alerts around the phase where your products actually bottomed out. ## Details that change the answer - **Time zones.** `scrapedAt` is UTC. A drop at 11 p.m. Eastern on Thanksgiving is already Friday in UTC, which is why the script converts to Eastern before picking the day. - **Run frequency.** With one run a day, a low that lasted six hours can be missed. From Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, run every few hours; the [Cyber Monday deal tracker guide](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/cyber-monday-deal-tracker/) works out what hourly checks cost. - **Out of stock.** A low price on a day the item was sold out isn't a price you could pay. If that matters, skip rows where `inStock` is false before computing lows. - **Is the low a real deal?** A season low can still be the normal price if the item was raised beforehand. The [fake Black Friday discounts guide](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/spot-fake-black-friday-discounts/) compares it with the 30-day median and the 90-day low. - **Edit the phases.** When retailers announce 2026 dates, change the `PHASES` list so the labels match the real events. For the year's other sales and when to start each baseline, see the [holiday sales calendar and price tracking guide](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/holiday-sales-calendar-price-tracking/), and for gift-buying after Cyber Monday, the [Christmas price tracker](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/christmas-price-tracker/). The free [e-commerce price tracker](https://datatooly.xyz/ecommerce-price-tracker/) page builds the tracking input. *Disclosure: I built the actor and this site. The script reads any CSV with these columns, whatever collected the prices.* Sources: [Walmart 2025 Black Friday Deals events (Oct 27, 2025)](https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2025/10/27/walmart-announces-2025-black-friday-deals-events-wrapped-in-the-magic-of-whoknewville), [Amazon: When is Black Friday 2025](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/when-is-black-friday-2025), [Target press release (Nov 20, 2025)](https://corporate.target.com/press/release/2025/11/target-transforms-black-friday-into-an-experience-with-deep-deals,-exclusive-launches-and-surprise-g), [Adobe: Cyber Monday hits record (Dec 2, 2025)](https://news.adobe.com/news/2025/12/adobe-cyber-monday-hits-record), [Which?: Black Friday deals exposed as duds (Nov 26, 2024)](https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/black-friday-deals-exposed-as-duds-aoK6u3j2suyu). ## Quick answers ### Do prices drop on Thanksgiving Day? Online, many do. Adobe measured $6.4 billion of US online spending on Thanksgiving Day 2025, and Walmart's main 2025 Black Friday event was already live online from the Tuesday before. Whether a specific product is cheapest that day is something only its own price history shows. ### When do early Black Friday deals start? In 2025, Walmart's first Black Friday deals event began November 14, Amazon's Black Friday Week began November 20 and Target's Black Friday event began November 23. The 2026 dates aren't announced yet; Walmart announced its 2025 dates on October 27. ### Are prices lower after Black Friday? Sometimes. Which? checked 227 UK Black Friday deals from 2023 and found every one was available for the same price or less at some point in the six months before or after. Adobe expected discounts to come down after Cyber Week in 2025. ### What time do Black Friday deals go live online? It varies by retailer. Amazon's 2025 Black Friday Week started at 12:01 a.m. PST on November 20, and Walmart+ members got early online access at 7 p.m. ET the evening before each 2025 Walmart event. ## Related guides - [Retail Sales Calendar 2026-2027: When to Track Prices](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/holiday-sales-calendar-price-tracking/) - [Amazon Price History Without Keepa: Build Your Own](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/amazon-price-history-without-keepa/) - [Amazon Price Scraper: Prices by ASIN on Any Marketplace](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/amazon-price-scraper-asin/) - [Back in Stock Alert Scraper: Products, Sizes, Colours](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/back-in-stock-alert-scraper/) - [Back to School Price Tracker: Tax Holidays & Laptops](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/back-to-school-price-tracker/) - [Compare Black Friday Prices Across Stores (Google Shopping)](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/black-friday-google-shopping-price-comparison/) - [Black Friday Price Tracker: Watch 2026 Prices Daily](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/black-friday-price-tracker/) - [Boxing Day Sales Tracker UK 2026: Prices in GBP](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/boxing-day-sales-price-tracker-uk/) - [Christmas Price Tracker: When to Buy Gifts Cheapest](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/christmas-price-tracker/) - [Competitor Price Monitoring: Scraper Setup and Cost](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/competitor-price-monitoring-scraper/) - [Cyber Monday Price Tracker: Hourly Checks for Nov 30](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/cyber-monday-deal-tracker/) - [Grocery Price Tracker: Build a Basket Index in Python](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/grocery-price-tracker-scraper/) - [MAP Monitoring: Find Minimum Advertised Price Violations](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/map-price-monitoring/) - [Price Drop Alerts to Slack or Email with a Scraper](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/price-drop-alerts-email-slack/) - [Prime Day Price Tracker: ASINs, Big Deal Days, 2027](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/prime-day-price-tracker/) - [Ramadan Sale Price Tracker 2027: Noon & Amazon UAE](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/ramadan-eid-sales-price-tracking/) - [Scrape Product Prices with Python from JSON-LD](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/scrape-product-prices-json-ld-python/) - [Scrape Product Reviews from Walmart, Target and Amazon](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/scrape-product-reviews-walmart-target-amazon/) - [Scrape Product Variants: Sizes, Colors and Price per SKU](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/scrape-product-variants-sizes-colors/) - [Fake Black Friday Deals: Check the Real Discount](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/spot-fake-black-friday-discounts/) - [Apify E-commerce Scraping Tool Alternative: Same Input](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/switch-from-apify-ecommerce-scraping-tool/) - [Walmart and Target Price Scraper: Search and Product Pages](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/walmart-target-price-scraper/) - [White Friday & 11.11 Tracker: Noon and Amazon UAE Prices](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/white-friday-11-11-noon-amazon-uae-prices/) - [Shopify products.json Pagination: 250 Limit and the 25,000 Cap](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/shopify-products-json-pagination/) - [AI Share of Voice: Measure It in ChatGPT and Perplexity](https://datatooly.xyz/guides/ai-share-of-voice-chatgpt-perplexity/)