Green Monday Is Almost Here: Get Ready to Save

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Black Friday and Cyber Monday are over, but they aren’t the only major retail holidays anymore.

Case in point: Green Monday, which falls on Dec. 11 this year. It’s essentially another Cyber Monday — which means smart shoppers stand to save big.

What is Green Monday, anyway?

Green Monday is the second Monday in December. Over the past decade, it has become one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

eBay takes credit for coining the term “Green Monday”:

“In 2007, eBay experienced one of its biggest sales days on the second Monday of December. In honor of the milestone, eBay named the day ‘Green Monday,’ a term that has since been widely adopted across the retail industry. … Green Monday continues to be a big online shopping day and ranked as eBay’s fourth highest sales day in 2016 and the third highest in 2015.”

I’ve been shopping Green Monday for several years now. From what I’ve seen, competitive retailers are eager to offer some real deals to scoop up the business of folks who have yet to finish gift shopping. I’ve also scored serious deals on household items that I stock up on this time of year.

As with other big retail holidays, Green Monday brings negligible discounts billed as deals, as well as those genuine bargains. But that just means shoppers willing to do a little homework stand to save big bucks.

What to expect on Green Monday 2017

A couple of retailers have started revealing Green Monday deals. Plenty of others have created webpages dedicated to Green Monday, where they will presumably post their deals by Dec. 11.

eBay says it will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Green Monday by launching new deals every hour. These deals will include:

  • Bose sound systems (over 50 percent off)
  • Dyson Supersonic hair dryer (38 percent off)
  • Samsung 75-inch 4K LED UHD flat-screen panel HDTV with HDR (60 percent off)
  • Black & Decker robotic vacuum (68 percent off)
  • Best Choice 5-Piece Complete Drum Set (52 percent off)
  • KitchenAid 6 Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer (57 percent off)

Target announced Thursday that it will offer what the retailer describes as its “biggest Green Monday sale ever on Target.com: Save $20 for every $100 you spend.”

Target is also offering online deals on toys from Dec. 10 through Dec. 16, though they cannot be combined with the Green Monday offer:

  • Spend $50 on toys, save $10
  • Spend $100 on toys, save $25

Retailers that have set up Green Monday 2017 webpages include:

How to prepare for Green Monday

So your curiosity is piqued. Now what?

Saving green on Green Monday requires just three pieces of homework:

  1. Learn about the available deals. Either sign up to receive emails from the retailers you’re interested in, or check their websites this weekend and again on Monday.
  2. Decipher real deals from duds. In other words, compare prices offered by multiple retailers for the same item to be sure you’re getting the lowest available price. See “3 No-Fail Ways to Super-Charge Your Savings From Now to Christmas.”
  3. Ask yourself whether you must have an item before Christmas. If the answer is “yes,” you should probably go ahead and buy it on Green Monday. If the answer is “no,” you might want to wait and see if prices fall even further between Green Monday and Christmas.

Remember, we have one more big retail holiday to go after Monday: Free Shipping Day, which falls on Dec. 15 this year.

For more holiday-time deal news as well as great gift ideas, check out our 2017 holiday shopping season page.

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