damn. Fry's holding out....

still no leaks yet. it better be super good if they've got this much tight security around the ad.

how long before black friday was last year's ad revealed?

Around November 15th last year...

First, there were at least two pages to last year's Fry's BF ad....link to thread: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/black-friday-2009/881808/

Second, the reason Fry's ads never show up before Thanksgiving morning is simple (as you can see in the thread linked above, it was around 5AM on Thanksgiving morning when it showed last year)....Fry's doesn't have their ad printed up separately as an insert. Almost all the other stores, Best Buy, Sears, Staples, OM, OD, etc., have their ads printed off site from the newspaper itself. The printed inserts are then shipped from the offsite printer to the newspaper for insertion into whatever issue they go into, like the Thanksgiving edition.

Fry's, on the other hand, has their ad printed as part of the newspaper itself. So, prior to the newspaper edition the ad is in being printed, the ad is only seen by those who created it at Fry's ad service. The press room at the newspaper only gets a digital format of the ad the day it's to be printed and only a few hours before the paper is printed. Before that, Fry's just lets the paper know how many pages it needs to have reserved for its ads. So, no one sees it prior to it being printed.

When the paper is printed, the ad then is first seen and can be scanned and posted.

So, no super secret security around the Fry's ad.....Fry's is just doing it the cheapest way, involving the cheapest printing method for their ad. Inserts cost a lot more, both in getting them printed and the cost of having the ads hand inserted into each and every copy of that paper's edition.....the advertisers do pay for that service, btw.

As usual. OTOH would you want Fry's to be more like Best Buy?

CannondaleRider said:

So, no super secret security around the Fry's ad.....Fry's is just doing it the cheapest way, involving the cheapest printing method for their ad. Inserts cost a lot more, both in getting them printed and the cost of having the ads hand inserted into each and every copy of that paper's edition.....the advertisers do pay for that service, btw.

Actually ROP's (Run On Press, in the paper) are much more expensive per column inch than inserts. That's why most companies do inserts so they can get more ad space to more people. Inserts also allow you to target specific zip codes, while ROP's are always going to be full run. I work for the marketing department of a large retailer and we pay about $12,000 for a full page ROP, and about $18,000 for a full run insert (4 pages that fold out which is about 4 times more than an ROP).

Not sure if this offers any insight into why fry's does it this way, but I thought I'd clarify. Maybe they do do it this way to avoid leaks

I have to drive 140 miles to the nearest frys. I was hoping to get a little more advance notice. Thanks for the tip.
Chris.

I worked for Fry's for 6 years as a manager up until this summer, and worked every Black Friday since being employed there. You can see my last years post here and search my history for the Ad Leaks every year.

They made the switch last year to a 2 page doorbuster ad on Friday, and moved the 8 page insert to Saturday. Our sales were always great on Friday, but the weekend sales would drop off a cliff. With more stores doing 2-day sales, Fry's decided to have a very aggressive Friday ad, undercut everyone's prices, and have a more fleshed out Weekend ad. This meant a more steady flow of customers, and giving the appearance that Fry's always has great prices , not just on BF, and if you didn't get something from another store you could come back to Fry's and get a steal that weekend.

So the ads will not leak out early, and if they do the earliest would be around closing time on Wednesday. 2 years ago the San Diego store leaked the ads almost a full day before they were released and our home office stopped giving advanced copies to the store last year.

The format for the ads will most likely be as such. This is for the SoCal regions:
2-page ad on Thursday. 1 page is usually computer/components/software, the next is AudioVideo/Appliances. Friday will have the same items, but may be in a slightly different design. These are the only 2 pages on Black Friday. Saturday will have the full 8-page ad, also a 1 day only sale. While the prices may not be as aggressive, there still be be great deals to be had and there will be people lining up in the morning (as they did last year). Sunday should carry on to what would be Thursday now.

I still have copies from last year's ads on my site, and since last year's sale was such a success from a sales perspective, I don't imagine them changing it.

Also, if you have any other questions about Fry's in general, feel free to ask

The Arizona Republic runs ads for the Phoenix store.

I believe the East Valley Tribune will carry ads for both Tempe and Phoenix.

FidoDido said: I don't mean to contradict you on this. As a former manager, you have way more inside information than I do.

But I specifically stopped in a 7-11 to pick up the San Jose Mercury News prior to entering the store last year and I had a full 8-page ad in my hands. Admittedly, I normally go to a SoCal store, so maybe last year, only San Jose offered a full-sized ad? It wouldn't be outside of the realm of possibility since San Jose is considered the "flagship" city.

Quite possible. Our ads were local for the LA/OC area only.

Hope to see some of you nice FWers on Friday! Gonna be weird being on the other side of the door for a change

The ad should be up somewhere by 3am PST.