The Memorial Day vs Black Friday tradeoff
For full-size refrigerators and laundry pairs across LG, Samsung, Whirlpool, and KitchenAid, Memorial Day weekend in late May consistently beats November Black Friday by 8 to 18 percent across Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy, and Costco. For ranges, dishwashers, and built-in microwaves, Labor Day weekend in early September is the deeper window. November Black Friday focuses more on countertop appliances, mini-fridges, and cordless combo bundles.
If you can wait 5 to 6 months from a November purchase decision, Memorial Day in May usually wins on full-size appliances. If you need the appliance now in November, Black Friday is fine; it just is not the deepest annual price.
What the multi-year tracking shows
Best Buy refrigerator promotional windows have historically clustered Memorial Day and Labor Day, with 25 to 40 percent off LG, Samsung, and Whirlpool full-size models. Best Buy Black Friday on the same models is typically 10 to 20 percent off, vs 25 to 40 percent at Memorial Day.
Lowes Memorial Day 2024 LG French door refrigerator pricing showed 35 percent off list, beating November Black Friday 2024 by 8 percent on the same model. Costco Memorial Day 2024 LG WashTower hit $1,799 with $300 instant rebate vs $1,899 at Black Friday 2024.
For Whirlpool laundry pairs and GE Profile ranges specifically, Spring Black Friday at Home Depot and Lowes (typically April 4 to 17) sometimes beats both Memorial Day and November Black Friday. The Spring Black Friday window adds a third major option for these specific models.
How retailer benefits stack across windows
Across all 4 promotional windows (Memorial Day, Labor Day, Spring Black Friday, November Black Friday), the retailer-specific stacks apply:
- Best Buy My Best Buy Plus 60-day price-match window catches post-purchase drops automatically (38 percent of full-size appliances tracked in 2024)
- Costco free 2-year extended warranty plus Executive 2 percent annual reward adds $150 to $400 hidden value
- Home Depot free delivery, installation, and haul-away on appliances $396 and above adds $150 to $300 hidden value
- Lowes MyLowes Pro 5 percent at checkout stacks year-round, plus same free service bundles as Home Depot
These benefits compound the savings further. A Memorial Day Costco purchase with the included 2-year warranty plus Executive 2 percent reward often beats a Black Friday Best Buy purchase by $300 to $500 net even when the listed Costco price looks $100 higher.
Why Black Friday gets more attention than it should for appliances
Black Friday gets more media coverage than Memorial Day. Most retail-focused calendars prioritize November. Most shoppers default to Black Friday as the deals event of the year. For electronics (TVs, laptops, headphones, gaming), this is correct: November Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the deepest annual windows for most electronics.
For full-size appliances specifically, the pattern is different. Memorial Day and Labor Day are the deeper windows. The under-marketing creates an opportunity. Less competition for headline deals during May and September means longer in-stock windows on premium models.
How to set up multi-window tracking
For shoppers planning a major appliance purchase, tracking specific model URLs across multiple retailers and across multiple promotional windows tells you which combination is actually deepest:
- Identify the specific model (LG WashTower, Samsung Bespoke 3-door, GE Profile slide-in range)
- Paste the model URL on Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy, and Costco into DiffScout
- Set monthly monitoring outside promotional windows
- Switch to weekly during Memorial Day week, Labor Day week, Spring Black Friday (early April), and November Black Friday week
- Compare the cross-retailer alerts to find the deepest combination
This catches the actual deepest annual price for the model, not just the deepest at any one retailer or one window.
When November Black Friday actually wins on appliances
For LG French door refrigerators, November Black Friday often beats Memorial Day. LG French door pricing follows the Sony OLED-style direct seasonal pricing authority pattern: November is the manufacturer-allocated deepest window for that specific brand and category.
For Samsung Bespoke refrigerators, the pattern is similar. November is typically deeper than Memorial Day on these specific lines.
For KitchenAid stand mixers (not technically a major appliance but adjacent), Black Friday at Amazon, Best Buy, and Williams Sonoma matches across all 3 retailers at $279 for the Artisan 5-quart, the deepest annual price.
The bottom line
For most full-size refrigerators (LG mid-tier, Samsung Crystal, Whirlpool, GE) and laundry pairs (LG WashTower, Samsung WashCombo, Whirlpool front-load), Memorial Day weekend in late May beats November Black Friday by 8 to 18 percent. For LG French door specifically and Samsung Bespoke, November is sometimes deeper.
Tracking specific models across multiple retailers and multiple windows is the only way to know which combination is actually deepest for the specific model in the specific year.
*DiffScout monitors any appliance URL across multiple retailers and alerts when Memorial Day or Black Friday pricing opens. Try it free →*