Labor Day sales are coming soon -- Here's what to expect and how to get the absolute best deals

Labor Day is hardly synonymous with shopping, but that doesn't stop stores from trotting out weekend sales in honor of — and I'm quoting Wikipedia here — "the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements in the United States." I mean, I guess that's a good reason to knock 30% off a duvet cover?

Of course, if you're in the market for a duvet cover — or anything else that typically goes on sale this time of year, like appliances, electronics and outdoor furniture — there are things you should know. Let's start with the highlights, then dive into some tips on scoring the best deals (and making sure whatever's on sale is really a deal).

What to expect from Labor Day 2025 sales

• You've probably already seen a lot of back-to-school sales. Many of these morph into Labor Day sales; very often they're exactly the same, just with different names.

• The month of August is changing the landscape of the streaming video market, with the imminent debut of new ESPN and Fox streaming services hitting soon. Concurrently, we're seeing some notable streaming deals and bundles, including Sling TV's new day-passes, starting at just $5. It's no coincidence this is all happening just ahead of the college and NFL football seasons, when viewers are aiming to make sure they can watch their favorite teams. So keep your eyes peeled for similar offerings in the days to come.

• Although it hasn't been announced just yet, Apple's annual product-launch event is expected in early September. We fully expect new iPhones and Apple Watches, and maybe even new AirPods, too. So if you're taking advantage of various pre-Labor Day Apple deals, just note that a new set of "latest and greatest" are likely imminent in several categories.

Labor Day shopping tip #1: Remember that the 'List Price' isn't always what it seems

Labor Day shopping is no different than regular shopping: Seek out the best savings before you pull the trigger. But what constitutes savings? There's the list price, aka MSRP ("manufacturer's suggested retail price"), which is the default price set by the manufacturer. But if you're shopping the likes of Amazon and Walmart, you may encounter third-party sellers. And because those third-party sellers have complete control over the prices shown for any product, they can artificially inflate the list price in order to make the discounted price seem more substantial. Not every seller does this, of course, but it does happen.

For example, there are a lot of no-brand robot vacuum cleaners available at Amazon. A common strategy there is for the seller to assign the product a very high list price, at least for a few weeks, then sell it for considerably less — making it seem like you're saving more than you are. Meanwhile, competing models are all priced around that same "sale" price, but seem less attractive by comparison.

Amazon has attempted to mitigate this issue on some products by instead listing something it calls the "typical price." Per Amazon, that is "the median price paid on Amazon in the last 90 days, [excluding] prices paid by customers for the product during a limited-time deal." It's a nice idea, but it doesn't seem to preclude some third-party sellers from pulling the same inflated discount game, even on name-brand products.

Take this 15-inch HP laptop sold by "Tropical Lightning Tech." It has a list price from that vendor of a whopping $4,500. It's currently listed as "78% off," or just under $1,000. Sounds great until you investigate further. That $4,500 price is an illusion: While it's not a bad price for Core i7 laptop with a ton of RAM and 2TB of storage, there's no way anyone should ever have been paying anything north of, say, $1,200 for it.

A little common sense is applicable here: If you're seeing something advertised as 70%, 80% or even 90% off, chances are good it was never really selling for that higher price to begin with. And if it was, it definitely wasn't worth it.

So, given that the posted discounts don't always line up with reality, how can you determine if a deal is really worth buying? That brings us to tip #2.

Tip #2: Check every deal's price history

Knowledge is power, and there's no better knowledge you can have during Labor Day than a product's complete price history. Thankfully, a couple of free tools let you pull back the curtain and see exactly that.

Why is this so important? Two reasons. First, as discussed above, you can see if that deal is really a deal or if the discounted price is the "always" price. Second, you can eliminate that sense of urgency from your shopping, because if a product has been discounted like this before, chances are good it will be again.

The tools I recommend for this: CamelCamelCamel (so named for the animal's humps, which go up and down — just like prices) and Keepa. Both will show you detailed price-history charts, including the lowest and highest prices on record. (And both work only with Amazon. Try Honey if you want a tool that works with other retailers.)

Now, the caveat here is that these price trackers will capture the same dramatic price fluctuations based on those sometimes-inflated list prices noted above. But for products with more honest price fluctuations, you can still save by waiting just a few days for the discount cycle to repeat. A great example: Amazon-branded products like the Kindle, Fire TV Stick and Echo Show. Checking their price histories, I know that they go on sale with almost clockwork regularity (typically once per month). And unlike during Prime Day and Black Friday, Labor Day isn't likely to yield the lowest prices of the year. If this isn't the best time for you to make a purchase, you can always wait for a bigger, better discount.

To use these tools, you can either search for a product (or copy/paste an Amazon product link) on their respective sites, or install their desktop browser extensions, which make searches much faster and easier. Prefer to shop on your phone? Keepa has mobile apps for Android and iOS.

Tip #3: Set up price-drop alerts

If there's a product you've been eyeballing but don't want to have to keep checking to see if it's on sale, there's an easy, automated solution: Create a price-drop alert so you'll get notified if and when that product hits your desired amount.

CamelCamelCamel and Keepa both offer this feature, a great secondary benefit to using them. Here's an example of what that looks like in the former, with Apple AirPods Pro 2 as my desired deal:

Obviously, this needn't be limited to Labor Day; I use price-drop alerts all the time. As long as you're not in a rush to buy whatever it is, this is the way to make sure you get exactly the discount you want.

Tip #4: Don't automatically assume Amazon has the best deal

This may come as a shock, but there are other stores out there. Best Buy, Target, Walmart and other retailers often run competing sale events during Labor Day, matching and sometimes even beating Amazon's prices.

Indeed, I think we're all a little hard-wired to believe that Amazon always has the best deals, but that's not always the case. Before you pull the trigger, especially on a large purchase, it's worth taking a minute or two to do some price-comparison shopping.

And if I can hop onto my little soapbox for a moment, don't forget to check out local stores as well. Especially bookstores, which can offer a browsing experience and customer service unmatched by Amazon. Some even have loyalty programs or other discounts that might get you close to Amazon pricing.

Tip #5: Follow Yahoo's Labor Day coverage (duh)

I'd be remiss if I didn't note that Yahoo will be monitoring and sharing all the best Labor Day deals in all the different categories: home, health, kitchen, tech and more. We have teams of experts (I mean it, literal experts!) scouring Amazon and other stores for the latest and greatest buys. So if you haven't already, bookmark Yahoo Shopping and Yahoo Tech as your jumping-off points for Labor Day 2025.

FAQs

When is Labor Day 2025?

The holiday falls on the earliest possible date: Sept. 1, 2025. Labor Day sales are likely to start as soon as mid-August, and kick into high gear by the start of Labor Day weekend: Friday, August 29. Once the holiday weekend ends, the sales do, too.

Will tariffs affect Labor Day deals?

Confused about the Trump administration's tariff plans? Join the club. Tariff rates seem to yo-yo from week to week, making the impact on consumer prices tough to gauge. In the tech space, we've begun to see evidence of price hikes on items like Xbox and Nintendo game consoles, high-end Japanese camera brands and some Sonos speakers. That said, with the largest China tariffs pushed out another 90 days, we're still seeing many familiar deals on things like Apple products persist — at least for now. How long it will last (or not) is anybody's guess, but you could be forgiven for jumping on a good deal while it's still available.

What items are most commonly discounted during Labor Day sales?

I asked ChatGPT this question and got... the same answer that I already knew from experience. Mattresses, appliances, outdoor grilling gear and furniture, electronics, clothing, home decor and back-to-school items are all expected to be on sale during the Labor Day season. Put another way: If you're looking for pretty much anything, it's likely to be on sale later this month.