A shopper seen from behind carries plain paper shopping bags through a store displaying sweaters, folded towels, ceramics, baskets, and ribbon-wrapped gift boxes.

Black Friday 2026: November 27 and the Early Sale Dates

ClockZone Editorial Team

November 13, 20262 min readUnited States

Also available in:

Black Friday 2026 falls on November 27. Target and Walmart have separate sale windows, so check each retailer’s dates, store hours and online offer terms.

Set a Countdown

When is Black Friday 2026? It falls on Friday, November 27, the day after U.S. Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 26. That’s the date for the shopping event, but a promotion carrying the Black Friday name may start earlier or continue afterward.

Can you shop in stores and online on Black Friday?

Black Friday is a major U.S. shopping event, with shoppers browsing and buying both in stores and online. Holiday gifts are part of that spending, though the event isn’t limited to gift shopping.

The National Retail Federation’s survey with Prosper Insights & Analytics found that Black Friday was the most popular day for both shopping channels in 2025, drawing 80.3 million in-store shoppers and 85.7 million online shoppers. Those are past participation figures, not a forecast for 2026.

Hands open brown paper packaging around a light gray knitted garment on a pale wooden surface beside blue, green, and brown shopping bags and stacked parcels tied with twine. — Shopping bags and wrapped parcels surround a knitted garment being unpacked.

You can browse and purchase through either channel, but check each retailer’s channel-specific availability, local opening hours and online launch times. A sale’s date range doesn’t establish when a particular store opens or when an online offer becomes available. It also doesn’t mean the same offers apply in both places.

Close-up of a person holding a smartphone with a blank screen beside a folded green sweater, with stacks of folded clothing in the background. — A smartphone beside folded knitwear on a clothing display.

The shopping event is separate from the unrelated 1869 Fisk–Gould financial crisis, which also carries the Black Friday name. That financial event should not be treated as the established origin of the modern shopping observance.

When do the retailer sales start?

According to TODAY’s report, updated November 11, 2026, Target and Walmart have announced these promotional windows:

Target Early Black Friday Sale: November 5–7, followed by new weekly deals throughout the season.
Walmart’s early Black Friday Deals event: November 12–15.
Walmart’s second Black Friday Deals event: November 23–29.
Walmart Cyber Monday Deals: November 30–December 2. The scheduled start time is 12:01 a.m. ET on November 30.

Walmart’s Cyber Monday promotion is a separate event following its later Black Friday sale, not a deadline shared by other retailers. For a particular purchase, check which promotion the offer belongs to and read its terms rather than assuming it lasts through the full event window.