Veterans Day Sales

How Big Is Veterans Day, Really?

Honest answer: not that big. Veterans Day is a federal holiday, not a retail event, and the shopping promotions attached to it are best understood as a preview of what's coming on Black Friday two and a half weeks later. Most major retailers run some form of sale — Home Depot and Lowe's in particular treat November 11 as a recognition event for veterans and active military — but the discount depth rarely matches what those same retailers offer on Black Friday.

That said, there are two situations where shopping Veterans Day makes sense: you need something specific and the deal is already at your target price, or you are worried inventory will thin out before Black Friday. For the second concern, that anxiety is most justified in clothing and outdoor gear, where popular sizes and styles genuinely do disappear before the end of November.

Where Veterans Day Promotions Are Actually Worth Watching

Early Appliance and Mattress Deals

Several major appliance retailers — Home Depot, Lowe's, Best Buy — use Veterans Day to launch what they call "early Black Friday" pricing on large appliances and mattresses. In some years this pricing is identical to what they later advertise as their Black Friday event. In others it is a few percentage points shallower. Either way, if you have been planning an appliance or mattress purchase and the Veterans Day price hits your number, there is little reason to wait. These categories do not tend to get meaningfully cheaper from November 11 to November 27.

For full context on the best buying windows in these categories: Best Time to Buy Large Appliances and Best Time to Buy a Mattress.

Clothing and Shoes

Apparel is the one category where Veterans Day shopping has a genuine inventory advantage over Black Friday. Fall and winter clothing — outerwear, boots, cold-weather layers — is fully stocked on November 11 and noticeably thinner by Thanksgiving weekend. Promotions of 30 to 40 percent are common at Gap, Old Navy, J.Crew, and Nordstrom. If Black Friday clothing deals are similar in depth but you risk missing your size, shopping two weeks earlier is the smarter play.

Tools

Home Depot and Lowe's both run tool promotions on Veterans Day as part of their recognition events. Combo kit deals and power tool discounts of 15 to 25 percent are standard. These are real savings — the same category they promote on Black Friday — and the pricing is usually competitive enough that there is no need to wait if tools are on your list.

See the Best Time to Buy Power Tools guide for the full year breakdown.

What to Skip Until Black Friday

Electronics. TVs, laptops, and phones see minimal Veterans Day discounting compared to what Black Friday produces. The retailers who move those categories most aggressively — Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart — reserve their sharpest pricing for the official Black Friday window. Monitoring is fine; acting on Veterans Day electronics deals rarely produces the best outcome unless a specific item hits your exact target price.