What’s trending: Black Friday apps for die-hard shoppers

As Thanksgiving quickly approaches, readers are undoubtedly looking forward to digging into mounds of stuffing and sinking their teeth into juicy turkey. But some carry a desire that stretches beyond the usual Thanksgiving feast and into Black Friday as enthusiasts relish in super savings and live-or-die shopping.

Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, is the de facto start to the holiday season. In recent years, die-hards have started to camp outside stores to gain early entrance to door-busting sales once the doors fly open. All of this madness helps stores leap into a profitable start to the holiday shopping season, or in other words, a financial exit from the “red” and the chance to “be in the black.”

To militantly strategize your outing or skip the stores all together, I have compiled a list of some great online websites and applications that help users find the best deals on Black Friday!

The first website dedicated to aiding shoppers is Black Friday Ads or bfads.net. Black Friday Ads is the ultimate way to look for anything your little heart desires. The site shows trending big-ticket items and past and predicted Black Friday prices for the item. A mobile app is also offered for Black Friday Ads.

Another useful website is the user-friendly FatWallet.com. Users simply search for a specific product and the site displays some its best Black Friday deals.

The Fat Wallet site or the available application gives the option to filter a search for super convenient and customized results. You can use filters to find when the deal is available, stores, categories, brands, types of deals or the price range of the specific product.

Now, if you want to brave the craziness that is shopping on Black Friday, here are some apps useful to the more motivated shopper that may be useful while you are already out and about.

The first application is TGI Black Friday. This free app frequently updates users to the brightest deals on this darkest of shopping days. One of the most user-friendly Black Friday tech tools, this app makes it simple to search by store and also do a basic browser search.

The second handy app is Shopkick. This app is unique in its geographic recognition. Once users enter a store, they can press a button on the app and it will recognize the store location and display the appropriate deals. 

The rewards system with Shopkick is also a special feature. If users recruit friends to download this free app, they receive “kick points.”  The “kick points” will unveil even more available deals. Shopkick can also be used on the other 364 days of the year to find amazing deals.