The real advantage now is simply staying home and letting the deals come to you.
Each year, the Memorial Day weekend transforms grief into commerce — a long weekend once set aside to honor the fallen becomes, in the consumer age, a ritual of discounts and digital carts. In 2021, that migration completed itself almost entirely online, as major retailers extended savings across electronics, appliances, and the small comforts of summer living. The holiday's original solemnity lingers only at the edges — in a genealogy site opening its military archives for free — while the broader human impulse to gather, equip, and prepare for warmer days finds its expression in marked-down televisions and robot vacuums.
- Retailers like Best Buy and Lowe's are moving aggressively online, offering discounts deep enough — $400 off a Vizio OLED, $350 off a Samsung flagship phone — to genuinely shift purchasing decisions.
- The old friction of holiday shopping — crowded aisles, limited stock, parking lot chaos — has been stripped away, replaced by promo codes and scrolling from the couch.
- Deals have spread far beyond electronics into the textures of summer: firepit gatherings, insulated water bottles, subscription meat boxes, and fitness bikes for the newly home-bound.
- Many sales extend well past Monday into early June, dissolving the artificial urgency that once drove holiday weekend foot traffic.
- Ancestry.com's quiet gesture — free access to military records on Memorial Day weekend — reminds shoppers that beneath the commerce, the calendar still carries weight.
Memorial Day 2021 arrived with its familiar parade of discounts, but this year the sales had moved almost entirely online. No parking lots to navigate, no store aisles to push through — just a browser, a promo code, and prices falling across every category imaginable.
The electronics deals were substantial. Best Buy offered up to $300 off LG OLED televisions and $400 off a Vizio 65-inch OLED. Apple Watch Series 6 dropped $70, AirPods fell $40, and Samsung's Galaxy S21 carried a $350 discount. Video games across Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch were marked down as much as half price.
Beyond screens, the deals stretched into summer living. Hydro Flask bottles went 25% off sitewide, Solo Stove firepits came with a free stand at a quarter off, and Rumpl's packable blankets followed the same discount. Samsung extended 30% savings on major appliances, with an additional $700 off a four-piece kitchen bundle.
Fitness and food found their place too. MyxFitness dropped its bike bundle $300 with a promo code. ButcherBox offered new subscribers a free barbecue package — steaks, burgers, drumsticks — with their first order. GlassesUSA ran 60% off frames. And Ancestry.com opened its Fold3 military history database for free searches, a small, deliberate nod to the holiday's original meaning.
With many sales running through early June, the urgency that once defined holiday weekend shopping had softened. The real shift was simpler: the deals now come to you.
Memorial Day weekend arrives with the predictable promise of discounts, but this year the sales have migrated almost entirely online. You don't have to brave crowded parking lots or navigate store aisles to find them. Instead, you can sit at home, scroll through Best Buy or Lowe's, and watch prices drop on everything from televisions to robot vacuums to the kind of blanket your kids will drag into every room of the house.
The deals this year are substantial enough to matter. Best Buy is running a store-wide sale that includes up to $300 off LG OLED televisions, while Vizio's 65-inch OLED model is marked down $400 at the same retailer. For those who've been eyeing Apple wearables, the Apple Watch Series 6 is $70 cheaper and AirPods are $40 off. Samsung's Galaxy S21 5G phone carries a $350 discount, and iPhone 11 models are $275 down. Video games across all major platforms—Xbox, PlayStation, Switch—are discounted, many at half price.
If you've been thinking about automating your floors, the Neato D7 robot vacuum is $150 off at Lowe's, bringing it down to $450 from its usual $600 price point. CNET reviewers have called it the best midrange robot vacuum available and noted it offers better overall value than the more expensive iRobot Roomba S9 Plus. The sale technically ends on the holiday itself, but Lowe's confirmed it runs through June 5.
Beyond electronics, the deals spread across categories that define summer living. Hydro Flask bottles are 25% off sitewide with the code WELOVESUMMER, including free shipping. The popular 32-ounce Wide Mouth model drops to $34 from $45. Solo Stove firepits—the kind that make neighbors envious—are 25% off and come with a free stand. Rumpl blankets, the lightweight packable kind that families drag to ski trips and car rides, are discounted 25 percent. Samsung is offering 30 percent off refrigerators, washers, and dryers, with an additional $700 off if you buy a four-piece kitchen package.
For those thinking about fitness, MyxFitness is offering its bike-and-accessories bundle for $1,499, down $300 with the code MEMORIAL300, which also includes free shipping and assembly. ButcherBox, a meat subscription service featuring grass-fed beef and humanely raised pork, is giving new subscribers a free barbecue bundle with their first order—two New York strip steaks, six burgers, and five pounds of drumsticks. Ancestry.com is opening its Fold3 military history database for free searches this weekend, a nod to the holiday's original purpose.
GlassesUSA is offering 60 percent off frames with basic lenses using code DEAL60, or 30 percent off an entire order with code USA30. Google's Nest Hub Max, a 10-inch smart display with facial recognition and hand-gesture controls, is $50 off at Adorama with code EXTRA50OFF. Most of these deals require a promo code, and retailers have been careful to list them clearly. The sales are scattered across major chains like Best Buy and Lowe's as well as specialty retailers like ButcherBox and GlassesUSA. Many extend well beyond Monday, some running through early June, which means the rush to buy before the weekend ends is less urgent than in years past. The real advantage now is simply staying home and letting the deals come to you.
Notable Quotes
The Neato D7 is the best midrange robot vacuum and offers the best all-around value compared to the more expensive iRobot Roomba S9 Plus.— CNET reviewers
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does Memorial Day specifically trigger this wave of sales? Is it just tradition, or is there something about the timing?
It's partly tradition—retailers have trained consumers to expect big discounts around the holiday for decades. But it's also practical. Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer. People are thinking about their yards, their patios, their beach trips. Retailers know that and stock accordingly. The timing aligns with when people are actually ready to spend on outdoor furniture, grills, and vacation gear.
The article mentions that online shopping dominates this year. Does that change what kinds of deals we see?
It does, actually. When everything is online, retailers can be more aggressive with discounts because they're not managing physical inventory in stores. There's no cost to keeping a digital listing up. And consumers can compare prices instantly across retailers, so the competition is fiercer. That pressure pushes prices down further.
I notice the deals extend well past Monday—some through early June. Does that undermine the urgency of the holiday sale itself?
In a way, yes. The traditional Memorial Day sale was a three-day event. Now it's more of a season. That's actually better for consumers who don't have time to shop over the weekend, but it does mean the holiday itself becomes less of a hard deadline. The real window is just whenever you decide to buy.
What's interesting to you about the breadth of these deals? Electronics, appliances, food subscriptions, eyeglasses—it's everything.
It shows how retail has fragmented. There's no single category that dominates anymore. A generation ago, Memorial Day sales meant appliances and furniture. Now it's democratized. A small company like Rumpl can run a 25 percent discount just as easily as Best Buy can. The holiday has become an excuse for any retailer to participate, not a specific event tied to specific products.
The ButcherBox deal is interesting—free meat with your first order. That's not a discount on price; it's a value add. Why do that instead of just lowering the subscription cost?
Because it works psychologically. A free bundle feels like a gift, like you're getting something extra. A price cut feels like the product is cheaper. Psychologically, they're different, even if the math is identical. And for a subscription service, getting someone to sign up is the hard part. Once they're in, they're likely to stay. The free bundle is an acquisition tool.