We are closing in on the “most wonderful time of the year”! And by that I mean Black Friday sale craziness is only a couple weeks away. 
 
 On Thursday, Walmart — the biggest player in the holiday sales game — announced its list of online and in-store Black Friday deals. Like last season, the retail giant is offering plenty of tech gadgets in its mix of sale items. Also familiar to its last Black Friday sale event: many of the items on said list of tech gadgets. 
 
 There’s an iPad, an Xbox One bundle, Beats headphones, a number of inexpensive laptops, and lots and lots of Blu-ray and DVD movies. The usual stuff. (You can cut to the chase and see the full listing.) 
 
 In fact, the biggest change to Walmart’s Black Friday sale this year is that the whole event has been simplified. First, the company is axing its typical rollout of various, staggered sales events from Thanksgiving Thursday through the weekend. Instead, Walmart’s entire Black Friday sale will begin online at 12:01 a.m. PST on Thanksgiving morning and in stores at 6 p.m. local time Thanksgiving evening. Second, the worldwide retailer has made “more than 95 percent” of this year’s Black Friday sale items available online, so there should be less reason to leave your turkey dinner early to fight through those crowds at the stores. 
 
 One of the reasons to put pants on and shop IRL at Walmart’s Black Friday event: As it’s done in years past, the store will again guarantee availability for select sale items (all electronics department stuff) to customers who come in-store to claim them during the first hour of the sale, between 6 and 7 p.m. 
 
 This year’s items guaranteed to be available: 
 
 iPad Air 2 in gold 16GB — $399 ($100 savings) 
 
 
 
 ($100 savings) Xbox One 500GB bundled with Gears of War game — $299 ($50 savings, includes $30 Walmart gift card) 
 
 game — ($50 savings, includes $30 Walmart gift card) Beats Studio headphones — $169 ($131 savings) 
 
 
 
 ($131 savings) HP 15-inch touch-screen laptop 500GB — $249 (special price) 
 
 
 
 (special price) LG 55-inch Smart 4K UHD TV — $698 ($300 savings) 
 
 
 
 Some other noteworthy techie treats in the sale: 
 
 PlayStation 4 bundled with Uncharted game — $299 ($50 savings) 
 
 
 
 game — ($50 savings) Roku 32-inch Smart HDTV — $125 (special buy) 
 
 
 
 (special buy) Samsung 60-inch 4K Ultra HDTV — $900 ($800 savings, online only) 
 
 ($800 savings, online only) Dell Black 15.6-inch Intel i3 laptop — $279 ($120 savings, online only) 
 
 ($120 savings, online only) Fitbit Flex wristband — $59 ($40 savings) 
 
 ($40 savings) Fitbit Charge HR heart rate and activity wristband — $119 ($30 savings) 
 
 
 
 ($30 savings) NBA2K16, Madden ’16 and FIFA ’16 for Xbox One — $27 each ($33 savings) 
 
 
 
 See the rest of the sale. 
 
 So that’s Walmart’s big holiday sale information drop; you may do with it what you wish. Shop online, shop in-store, or don’t shop at all. Happy holidays! 
 
 Update: Some product details and prices have been corrected. 
 
 Don’t miss these other awesome Yahoo Tech stories: 
 
 Email me at danbean@yahoo-inc.com. Follow me on Twitter at danielwbean. 
 
 
 
 For all the hottest tech news and gadget reviews, follow Yahoo Tech on Facebook! ||||| Walmart announces plans for Thanksgiving, Black Friday 
 
 By JOAN VERDON 
 
 STAFF WRITER | 
 
 The Record 
 
 Wal-Mart announced plans today to modernize and simplify its Black Friday routine, but it is sticking with one strategy that has become a tradition for the world's largest retailer — it is once again encouraging customers to shop on Thanksgiving. 
 
 Buy this photo AP FILE PHOTO Wal-Mart 
 
 Wal-Mart will begin offering its Black Friday deals in its stores at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving,the same time as last year, and the same time that its top competitor, Target, will open its stores on the holiday. Wal-Mart's stores typically are open 24 hours, every day of the year, so they are open all day on Thanksgiving, but the retailer makes its special deals available starting at a specific time on Thanksgiving night. 
 
 This year, Wal-Mart seems to be acknowledging that the era of waiting in line for deals is drawing to a close, replaced by the age of buying online. The retailer is putting more of its promotional efforts into online deals, and new ways of using cellphones and other mobile devices to find deals, make purchases, and create wish lists to share with family and friends. 
 
 In the past, Wal-Mart staged multiple door-buster or deal events staggered at different times during Thanksgiving evening, as a way of keeping shoppers in its stores longer. This year, the company is holding a single event on Thanksgiving, at 6 p.m., in response to feedback from customers. 
 
 Steve Bratspies, chief merchant at Wal-Mart, said its customers have told the retailer they want a "simplified, less confusing shopping experience." The company's plan, he said, "is to make Black Friday shopping easier for our customers." 
 
 Wal-Mart once again is hoping to lure customers to its stores on Thanksgiving with deals on five items guaranteed to all shoppers who are in a store between 6 and 7 p.m. Those items include an LG 55-inch 4K television for $698 and an HP Touch Laptop for $249. 
 
 In addition to eliminating the need to wait around for staggered deal offerings, Wal-Mart has pared the list of its guaranteed in-stock deal specials to five from nine, but it is promising to have more inventory in stock in general to make sure sale items are available. 
 
 Wal-Mart is encouraging online shopping by making all of its Black Friday deals available online on Thanksgiving morning, for the first time. In the past, some deals were only offered in the stores. The Black Friday deals will be available starting at 12:01 a.m. Pacific time on Thanksgiving, or 3:01 a.m. in New Jersey. 
 
 Macy's, the country's largest department store chain, will open its stores at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving. Kohl's stores also will open at 6 p.m. Wayne-based Toys "R" Us and Best Buy stores will open at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving. ||||| CLOSE Walmart is remaking Black Friday by ditching doorbusters as part of a strategy to make holiday shopping easier for customers. USA TODAY 
 
 Customers shop during Walmart's Black Friday event at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving night 2014 in Bentonville, Ark. This year Walmart is getting rid of multiple deal events throughout Black Friday weekend in favor of offering all deals at once. (Photo: Gunnar Rathbun, Invision for Walmart) 
 
 Corrections & clarifications: A previous version of this story misstated Walmart's Thanksgiving store hours. Most stores are open 24/7, but the Black Friday event begins at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving. 
 
 Walmart is remaking Black Friday by ditching doorbusters as part of a strategy to make holiday shopping easier for customers. 
 
 The retailer will once again start its Black Friday event at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving, but it won't be rolling out hourly deals on different items. Instead, it plans to simplify the crazed shopping period by providing nearly all of its deals both online and in stores at once. Online deals will start at 12:01 a.m. Pacific time on Thanksgiving, while all in-store deals will be available once stores open that evening. 
 
 The doorbuster has been a staple of Black Friday shopping, luring a steady stream of customers into stores in search of the newest and best deals throughout the evening. But it's also a game plan that can confuse and frustrate customers who must cut their holiday short, devise specific shopping strategies to make sure they nab an item, deal with huge crowds and risk items selling out, says Steve Bratspies, Walmart's chief merchandising officer. 
 
 "Our plan is fundamentally, make shopping easier for our customers," he says. "It’s about deals, it’s about availability and it’s about simplicity." 
 
 That's why Walmart is also hoping to satisfy deal-hunting customers by aiming to keep enough of the most popular items in stock, including TVs and toys. The company has bulked up on best-sellers to make sure products are available. It's also bringing back its one-hour guarantee, which guarantees special deals on five products — an iPad Air 2, Beats headphones, an Xbox One, an HP Touch laptop and a 55-inch LG TV — to anyone lined up in the designated spot in stores between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Either the product or a raincheck for guaranteed delivery before Christmas will be available. 
 
 With thousands of deals exclusive to online on Thanksgiving and updates to its app, Walmart is focusing heavily on Web and mobile shoppers — it expects 75% of its online holiday traffic to come from mobile this year. The mobile app now lets users shop the Black Friday circular by clicking and then purchasing products directly from the ads. Users also can browse store maps to see where Black Friday deals are located in any store and scan products in stores for reviews and the option to add the item to a shareable wish list. The app has also enabled mobile check-in for customers picking up online orders, which notifies an employee to prep the order. 
 
 "We’re going to make it easier when you get to the store to find what you want and hopefully get through it a little quicker," said Walmart U.S. CEO Greg Foran. 
 
 Walmart announced its plans Thursday as retailers appear to be settling in for a tamer holiday weekend this year. Most major stores are opening at the same time as last year, ending the trend of rolling it earlier each year. Many are also making it just as easy for customers to skip a store trip altogether by making the same deals available online. 
 
 Overall, Walmart has backed away from the deals frenzy of years past, announcing last month that it would be focusing more on offering discounts all season instead of sprinkling them throughout November and December. The softened approach may be a gamble given the competitive nature of the retail industry during the holidays and how tough it's become to achieve traffic growth, says Brian Yarbrough, an equity research analyst at Edward Jones. 
 
 "If Walmart does it this year and it's kind of boring and others have the doorbusters and Walmart loses a bunch of traffic, guess what they're going to do next year?" he says. 
 
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– Walmart is doing away with hourly doorbusters and will instead make all of its Black Friday deals available immediately at 6pm on Thanksgiving—the same time sales kicked off last year, reports NorthJersey.com. The company says its strategy will simplify holiday shopping, which can get a little crazy. All deals will also be available online beginning at 12:01am PST on Nov. 26. One promotion that's back from last year: Walmart's one-hour guarantee, meaning anyone lined up during the first hour in a specific spot will be guaranteed an iPad Air 2 for $399, Beats headphones for $169, an Xbox One for $300, an HP touch-screen laptop for $250, and a 55-inch LG TV for $698, per USA Today and Yahoo. Find more deals here.