Black Friday 2012 deals have emerged this week, and it's not only retailers like Walmart, Target and Best Buy giving thrifty consumers a taste of what to expect the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally one of the busier shopping days of the year.
Retailers catering to or operated by Christians are among the many businesses slashing prices during the holiday shopping season, which includes Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the first Monday after Thanksgiving.
Christian Book Distributors has already started teasing its Black Friday 2012 discounts at ChristianBook.com, informing visitors that it has over 1,500 products on sale from Nov. 21-27.
Some of ChristianBook.com's deals currently listed on its Black Friday specials page include: items for less than $2, 50 percent off DVDs, Bibles discounted by up to 90 percent, and gift and home items for less than $9.99. Items on the list with high customer ratings include The New York Times bestselling book Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back, the special collector's edition DVD of "Fireproof", and several leather-bound ESV Bibles, among others.
Logos Bible Software, a leading developer of electronic resources for Bible study and research, announced on Oct. 29 its "Logos Black Friday Like-athon" to be carried out via Facebook.
"It's simple," the company explains. "To save up to 50% on your favorite Logos products, just Like them, and have your friends do the same! Together, you'll decide which products we mark down, and for every 1,500 Likes racked up across Logos.com, we'll drop those products' prices by 10%."
The Bible software company recently launched its feature-rich Logos 5 study set. No word if the new software, ranging from $250-$4,232, will be included in the "Logos Black Friday Like-athon", as it's currently going for 15 percent off the regular price.
LifeWay Christian Resources, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, has already distributed its 2012 Christmas catalog and offers shoppers the option of making purchases online, over the phone or at any of its 160 owned-and-operated nationwide stores.
Products in LifeWay's Christmas catalog include books, Bibles, CDs, Nativity decorations and other items. Some of the more popular items on sale include Francis Chan and Mark Beuving's newly released Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples (Nov. 2012) at $9.99, Chris Tomlin's "And If Our God Is For Us" CD for $5 and the DVD movie "Letters to God" also for $5.
Online retailer Christian Audio has not yet launched its promotional discounts for Black Friday, although the business regularly has 99 cent downloads and monthly free audiobooks, in addition to lectures, sermons and interviews.
FamilyChristian.com is already promoting Christmas "doorbuster" deals, including apparel, books and music at $5, or 50 percent of regular prices.
In addition to Christian-interest retailers, major businesses like Amazon, Walmart and Target have either started promotional sales, or previews of what to expect with their 2012 Black Friday ads.Those ads can be accessed all in one place on websites such as BlackFriday.com and BFAds.net, which frequently update with holiday sales ads from numerous retailers. In addition, popular online retailer Amazon.com has been counting down to Black Friday 2012 deals with its Gold Box events – daily deals on various items – and Lightning Deals, occurring on the hour or ever two hours.
To stay abreast of discounts, promotions and flash sales many consumers also follow certain retailers on social media networks, like Facebook and Twitter, as well as by signing up for email alerts on merchant websites.
