When Do Black Friday Deals Start? The 2026 Calendar, Week by Week

Black Friday 2026 falls on Friday, November 27, the day after Thanksgiving, with Cyber Monday following on November 30. That date, though, answers a different question than the one most shoppers are asking.

Big US retailers now spread their holiday discounts across roughly two months, and by mid-October the first round has already come and gone.

The Holiday Season Kicked Off in Early October

The unofficial starting gun fired in the first week of October.

Amazon ran Prime Big Deal Days on October 6 and 7, a 48-hour event for Prime members that the company itself pitched as the start of holiday shopping.

Target scheduled its fall Target Circle Deal Days on the same two days, open to members of its free loyalty program, while Walmart's October deals event got going a day earlier, on October 5.

None of these carried the Black Friday label, yet plenty of shoppers used them to cross gifts off their lists. Since then, a number of brands have started tagging promotions as early Black Friday offers, and Discoup gathers them on a single page dedicated to Black Friday that follows the event as new ones go live.

Early November Brings Previews and Weekly Drops

Last year offers a useful template.

Target began rolling out weekly deals on November 1, 2025, and Walmart opened the first of its Black Friday events on November 14, a full two weeks before the day itself, with Walmart+ members getting online early access the evening before.

Retailers tend to announce their November schedules only a few weeks ahead, so the 2026 dates may not follow this pattern exactly.

Black Friday Week Now Starts Before Thanksgiving

The most concentrated stretch begins well before the Friday.

In 2025, Amazon launched its Black Friday Week on November 20 and kept it running through Cyber Monday. Target ran its Black Friday deals from November 23 to 29, and Walmart's main event opened on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, online only until stores reopened on Friday morning. 

Walmart, Target and other large chains have kept their doors closed on Thanksgiving Day in recent years, so the Thursday action usually happens on websites and apps.

Buying Early Without Second-Guessing the Price

The real risk of shopping early is watching the same item drop further a few weeks later.

Price protection can help: last season, Target's Holiday Price Match Guarantee ran through December 24, covering shoppers who bought early and then spotted a lower price.

Policies change from year to year, so read the current terms before counting on one. It also pays to track a product's price over several weeks, since a "doorbuster" tag says nothing about what the item actually cost in September. 

Finally, check who can shop each event: some early access windows are reserved for paying members, while other sales only require a free account.

Circle the Week of November 23, Not Just the Friday

If you plan around a single stretch, the days starting Monday, November 23, are likely to matter more than Black Friday alone.

Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26, Black Friday on the 27th and Cyber Monday on the 30th, with many online offers typically carrying over from one to the next.

Big-ticket items you have been researching for months are worth watching from early November onward, while smaller gifts can often wait for the final days, when the widest range of discounts tends to be live at the same time.