Black Friday 2024 in New Zealand: dates, retailers and the deals you can expect

Yes! While Black Friday started as a shopping observance on the fourth Friday of November – the day after Thanksgiving – it is now a global shopping event, with many of New Zealand's biggest retailers taking part.

Black Friday 2024 will officially start at 00:01am NZDT on Friday, November 29. While the date of Black Friday changes every year, it always falls on the Friday after Thanksgiving in the US.

However, most retailers will start their Black Friday sales about a week earlier than the official date, so keep your eye out for sales from mid-November onwards. And, the very best offers will land over the four-day weekend starting with Black Friday and finishing with Cyber Monday.

We’ll likely see official Black Friday sales appearing online about a week before the actual start date, which would mean NZ retailers will start their Black Friday sales from about November 22. As you'd expect, these early Black Friday deals aren’t always as good as what you'll find available on the official dates, but we have seen plenty of instances where early Black Friday prices don’t fall any further once Black Friday hits.

The majority of discounts from Black Friday 2024 will officially wrap up at the end of Cyber Monday on December 2.

Most brick-and-mortar stores and online retailers will offer Black Friday sales, and our job is to help you hunt down the best of the bargains. You’ll typically find the best deals on tech from big-name retailers such as Amazon, PB Tech and Noel Leeming.

Amazon Australia has been shipping items to New Zealand since July 2021, but unfortunately Kiwis don’t get access to all of Amazon’s Black Friday deals. Even some key Amazon-owned products like Echo smart speakers and smart displays don't even ship to New Zealand. Still, in both Prime Day sales of 2024 and Amazon's mid-year sale, we saw plenty of good deals in New Zealand. So, even without official sale branding, Kiwis can expect plenty of discounts.

PB Tech and Noel Leeming are key retailers to watch out for, too. From Apple Watches, iPhones, iPads and Macbooks to Sony headphones and monitors, both retailers have been offering plenty of deals in 2024, so we don't expect that to change during Black Friday.

Three other key sellers are HP, Dell and Lenovo. If you're on the lookout for a printer, laptop, monitor, desktop, PC, tablet or any kind of PC accessory, HP, Dell and Lenovo should be at the top of your checklist. HP and Dell are constantly offering incredible deals on top-tier tech, and Lenovo isn't far behind, so we expect them to be offering mouthwatering discounts come Black Friday.

Whether it's because you love to shop or you enjoyed watching those old videos of the mayhem induced by Black Friday before there were an abundance of sales periods, Black Friday is well known as one of the biggest sales events in the world.

The origin of its name is a little less fun. It's common to hear that it's called Black Friday because businesses operate 'in the red' until massive sales from Black Friday put them 'in the black', the actual likely origin is a touch more grim.

We couldn't find a definitive answer, but the term Black Friday seems to originate from 1960s Philadelphia. Suburban tourists from surrounding areas would enter the city to begin their holiday shopping and attend Saturday's Army VS Navy Football game. The chaos this mass migration caused – increases in shoplifting, traffic and accidents – caused police to work longer, more trouble-filled shifts over the weekend, so they called it Black Friday.

The city actually attempted to remove the negative connotation of the name, offering 'Big Friday'' as an alternative, but it didn't stick. It wasn't until the late eighties that the often repeated 'retailers creating massive discounts to put their sales into the black' narrative was created.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday generally offer the same deals and discounts, so it's difficult to say one sale is better than the other, at least in New Zealand. As alluded to by the names, the two shopping dates were much more distinct from each other in the past, with Black Friday being a physical sale and Cyber Monday being for online-only deals. Today, the two sales are basically one big four day event, and we doubt shoppers will notice any difference in 2024.

Neither New Zealand or Australia celebrate Thanksgiving, but people from both countries love to shop during a sale. Paul Zahra – CEO of Australia's Retailers Association – states that the reason is simply that “Australians are shopping earlier for Christmas than they ever have", and assumedly the same can be said about New Zealanders.

While there are usually some hefty deals in the lead up to the holiday season, with the entirety of December basically being one big sale, getting in early is usually the smartest option – and Black Friday is a great way to do so.

Black Friday is the biggest sale day in New Zealand, but there are quite a few that give it a run for its money – and you'll want to keep an eye out for them in 2025.

Sitting on either side of Christmas, Christmas Eve and Boxing Day sit at the top of the New Zealand sales list, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday offering massive discounts a little less than a month beforehand in 2024.

Then there's holidays like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day and Easter Weekend that offer varying degrees of sales.

In New Zealand, you're also likely to see some sales for Waitangi Day. Waitangi Day is the national day that marks the day the Treaty of Waitangi signed. Today regarded as a founding document of the nation, this was a treaty between the British and indigenous Māori chiefs.

Another holiday sale to remember is Single's Day. Falling on November 11 (11/11 – singles, get it?) Single's Day is an unofficial Chinese holiday and shopping sale that celebrates people who are not in a relationship.

Every retailer will likely be providing discounts during Black Friday, and airlines are no different. You can expect significant deals on domestic and international flights, and – especially if you're flexible about your destination or schedule – you can snag awesome deals on less popular locations or seasons.

If you're looking to snag some discounts on your holiday shopping, then shopping during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend is definitely the way to go. While there are discounts in New Zealand across the entire month of December leading up to Christmas, it's unlikely you'll see anything cheaper than Black Friday until Boxing Day – and that's not usually when Christmas gifts are handed out.

As for waiting for Cyber Monday over Black Friday, the two sales are basically the same thing these days, with the entire weekend from Friday to Monday acting as a sales event. If there's something you want to snag a deal on, there's no need to wait til Monday hoping it comes down further.