With Thanksgiving and Black Friday just around the corner, it’s useful to have a guide for the best shop-till-you-drop locations in Turlock.
Tomorrow starts off the chaotic holiday weekend, and don’t worry if you still need to get some last-minute grocery shopping done. A number of grocery stores will be open on Thanksgiving.
Safeway (Monte Vista Avenue) will be open at its usual time and close at 6 p.m. Raley's (Geer Road) will be open from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Save Mart’s (Geer Road) operating hours are 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Food Maxx (Countryside Drive) will keep their doors open until 4 p.m. Wal-Mart’s Neighborhood Market (Geer Road) is open 24 hours, but Wal-Mart (Fulkerth Road) itself will open at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving and remain open until midnight on Black Friday.
For those who won’t be cooking on Thanksgiving, there are still some dining options. IHOP (Countryside Drive) will be open from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Nov. 28. Burger King (Geer Road) will serve food from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. McDonalds (both Countryside Drive and Geer Road) will be open for 24 hours, as will Denny’s (Lander Avenue).
If it’s the post-turkey slump that makes Black Friday so intimidating, fear not: a number of Starbucks locations will remain open for the majority of Thursday and Friday. The cafe located in the Target shopping center will remain open the longest: 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving to 11 p.m. on Black Friday.
For drive-thru locations, the kiosk on Countryside will be open on Thanksgiving from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., and reopen 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. in order to give Black Friday shoppers a quick pick-me-up. The Geer Road store will be open from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m., Lander Avenue will be open from 5:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and West Main Street will be open from 5:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Most stores operate for their normal hours on Black Friday, unless otherwise noted.
Finally, when it comes to the deals, prowling through the ads can be somewhat daunting. Fortunately, there are quite a few important stops you can make right here in Turlock.
J. C. Penney (Countryside Drive) will be open 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving to 9 p.m. on Black Friday. Doorbuster deals will be offered from 8 p.m. until 2 p.m. Perhaps the most exciting part is that free Disney snowglobes are rumored to return for those shoppers that show up at 4 a.m.
Target (Countryside Drive) also opens its doors at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, keeping them open until 11 p.m. on Black Friday. In-store deals will be announced tomorrow morning on Target’s website (target.com). Target also offered a 20 percent discount the week of Cyber Monday to those with purchases worth $75 or more. Some other great deals include a Vizio 37” Class LED HDTV for $249.99 or a Sony PlayStation 4 for $459.98 which includes a controller, a PS4 Eye Camera and one game.
Staples (Countryside Drive) will be open from 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving until midnight, then reopen their doors 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Black Friday. Several of their noteworthy deals include a Samsung Galaxy S4 phone for $49.99, a Kindle Fire for $79, an HP Chromebook for $179.99 and a Toshiba laptop with AMD A4 APU for $249.99.
Michael’s (Geer Road) will be open from 4 p.m. Thursday to 2 a.m. Friday. The store will reopen 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Black Friday. There are a number of interesting deals; from 12 noon until 10 p.m. Friday, Micheal's offers 40% off an entire regular price purchase. That's on top of huge sales on trees and ornaments for Christmas.
Kohl’s (Countryside Drive) opens at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving and remains open until midnight on Black Friday. Starting at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, one shopper will be chosen each hour to win a “Dream Receipt.” If the dream receipt is received, Kohl’s will pay for the purchases of that customer. This promotion applies online as well as in-store. Visit kohls.com for more information.
Sears (Main Street) will be open from 7 p.m. to 12 midnight on Thanksgiving, and then reopen from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Black Friday. For those looking to get an early start, online doorbuster deals for Sears started tonight at 4 p.m.
Both Radio Shack locations (Countryside Drive and Geer Road) will open on Black Friday from 8 a.m to 9 p.m., with several good deals like the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 phone for $99, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 tablet for $169.99 and Beats Pill Wireless Speakers for $149.
Wal-Mart (Countryside Drive) opens Thanksgiving at 6 a.m. and closes at midnight on Black Friday. The deals will start at 6 p.m. Friday – deals like Beats Solo by Dr. Dre for $114.95, or a Microsoft Xbox One for $499 that includes a controller, chat headset and Kinect. Wal-Mart has also said it will give customers wristbands before 6 p.m. in order to reserve certain products. Shoppers may return to the store at 6 p.m. to pick up their items.
Interestingly, Wal-Mart has three stages of in-store deals. From 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. there will be a one-hour guarantee that will apply to items like video games, tool sets and home appliances. 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. has a one-hour deal on several expensive electronic items like TVs, headphones and digital cameras. At 8 a.m. on Black Friday there’ll be discounts on iPhones, Christmas ornaments and countless other items.
Whether you’re staying home, visiting family or snagging deals this holiday weekend, make sure to drive safely and— most of all— have a happy Thanksgiving.
Turlock Downtown's Festival of Lights will also take place on Black Friday. Some downtown merchants will be open while there will be street vendors along Main Street. Read more about the event details surrounding the traditional Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony here at this link.
