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Shoppers are already planning strategies to take advantage of the bargains offered on the day after Thanksgiving, and a new generation of Web sites is devoted to "leaking" information on the sales of major retailers before their circulars reach the general public.

Many major retailers not only allow the specifics on their sales to be leaked - some encourage it. The new sites are part of the growing fervor over Black Friday shopping.

Mike Riddle came up with the idea for Black-Friday.net after waiting in line outside a Best Buy for hours in 2005 to get a television he saw in a Black Friday circular, only to be told once inside that the television had sold out.

"After I got home, I found out that I could've have gotten it on Amazon for cheaper and that they had had it on sale the entire week. If I knew that, I wouldn't have had to wait in line at all," said Riddle, 27, a software engineer from Boston. "I just figured there were enough people out there like me who would want to know that kind of stuff ahead of time."

Apparently, there are.

Riddle's Web site, which announces details on the major Black Friday sales as early as a month before the circulars are sent out, attracted 3.5 million visitors last year. It is on pace to double that total this year.

"It has just exploded," said Riddle, who started another Web site this year, BlackFriday.org, to accommodate more bargain hunters. "I had no idea how much people love to shop on this holiday. The response has been far more than I could have ever expected."

The hunt

Riddle's Web sites are no aberration. Every fall he is in a race with an handful of competitors to be the first to post Black Friday advertisements as they are leaked.

"It's kind of like a big game," he said. "Because whoever gets the ad up there first is who gets the credit (in the media)."

Among those competitors is Jon Vincent, who founded BlackFriday.info in 2005 after getting demands for information on Black Friday sales at an online coupon site he also runs.

Vincent's site attracted about 10 million visitors last year. This year, he expects more than 12 million.

"(The increase) might be because there is not that much money out there this year, and people are looking to save money wherever they can," the 30-year-old Boston resident said.

The Web site creators said this year most bargain hunters are searching smaller-ticket items such as clothing and children's toys, which Vincent also attributed to the bad economy.

"Even last year, the top item people were looking for wasn't flat-screen televisions or computers," he said. "It was Spider-Man pajamas."

Vincent said Walmart has the most aggressive sales again this year and that it is followed by Target and Amazon.com, which he referred to an "up-and-comer."

"One of the worst ads is Best Buy, which is probably due to a lack of competition," he said.

But before the Web sites can post any information on planned sales, they have to get advanced copies of the advertisement.

"They come from sources like people within the companies themselves down to the people working the printing press," said Vincent, whose Web site posted scans of Black Friday circulars for Walmart, Macy's and Kmart on Wednesday.

The give and take

Vincent and Riddle both said that Walmart sends them "cease and desist" letters every August or September warning them not to post their advertisements prior to a certain date or the retail giant would take legal action against them.

This year Walmart gave them the date of Nov. 23, Riddle said.

"I don't want to make them mad or else they'll take all of my money for the rest of my life," said Riddle, adding he only clears enough from the Google ads on his Web site for "extra holiday shopping cash."

But when details of Walmart's Black Friday sale appeared on CNN and started popping up on the Internet, Riddle called Walmart for permission to post the information as well.

"I said the ad is already all over the place and they told me 'OK, yeah. You can post it now,'" he said.

Three years ago it was commonplace for the retailers to issue these kinds of threats, Riddle said.

"But now I'd be lucky to get one or two - aside from the one we get from Walmart every year, of course," he said.

Vincent attributed this drop in opposition to many retailers starting to take advantage of the early advertising.

"It's give and take," Vincent said of his relationship with retailers. "When we got our Facebook page up… Sears sent $500 worth of gift cards that we could give away on there. And (last week) JC Penney called to ask me to post a copy of their ad, but I told them I already had it."

Kate Coultas, a spokeswoman for JC Penney, said the Texas-based retail giant does not actively try to leak its circulars to Web sites, but she called the early exposure of the sales a good thing.

"It jump starts the excitement for the biggest shopping day of the year," Coultas said. "And the (leaked advertisements) will usually start appearing about a week before our Black Friday special, so there is really nothing to be concerned about if it is only happening a week before."

Tom Aiello, a spokesman for Sears, said that he could neither confirm nor deny whether the leaked advertisements were legitimate but said they looked "awfully familiar."

Aiello characterized Sears' relationship with the Web sites as an advertising arrangement that generates interest in the Sears brand and drives people to its own Web site.

"While we do not wish for (the leaks) to happen… when it does, we have to make a decision on how to react," Aiello said. "And that doesn't mean to follow the pack with other retailers who choose to lash out at those Web sites, we decide to stay focused on our customers and what they are asking for."

Vincent agreed that shoppers are the ones who benefit most from this unconventional partnership.

"I think it's very helpful to them with planning their holiday shopping," he said. "They have a good amount of time to compare all the different sales, instead having to wait until Thanksgiving to find out about them."

Contact Rob Spahr:

609-272-7283

RSpahr@pressofac.com

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