Adam McCann, Financial Writer

Nov 20, 2019

Black Friday shopping is one of America’s most treasured holiday traditions. But there’s always a bit of hassle involved. Shoppers have to get up early, stand in endless lines at stores and try to find deals through hordes of other shoppers — all in the name of savings.

That tradition is changing, however. Black Friday sales are starting earlier, weeks ahead of the actual shopping holiday at some stores. And many retailers are offering even steeper price cuts or other discount promotions, both in store and online, just to stay ahead of their competitors. That’s good news for shoppers, especially those who prefer to shop from home. So which stores offer the best discounts and for which items?

To answer that question and help consumers maximize their Black Friday savings, WalletHub surveyed nearly 8,000 deals from 29 of the biggest U.S. retailers’ 2019 Black Friday ad scans. Below, we’ve listed the stores offering the largest advertised discounts in various product categories such as “Jewelry” and “Appliances.” Read on for the full list, our methodology and shopping wisdom from a panel of experts.

Best Places to Shop on Black Friday

Retailer 2019 Avg. % Discount by Retailer 2018 Avg. % Discount by Retailer 2017 Avg. % Discount by Retailer 2016 Avg. % Discount by Retailer 2015 Avg. % Discount by Retailer Stage 69.8% 62.1% 60.8% 62.8% 63.9% Belk 66.9% 68.9% 62.8% N/A 59.5% Bealls Florida 62.6% N/A 52.8% N/A N/A JCPenney 61.0% 65.1% 66.3% 62.8% 68.0% Kohl's 57.1% 60.8% 66.3% 58.1% 66.7% New York & Company 56.3% 54.5% N/A N/A N/A Dick's Sporting Goods 52.3% 49.9% 35.1% N/A N/A Kmart 51.8% 37.9% 35.8% 28.6% 50.1% Sears 49.2% 42.9% 50.1% 43.9% 41.7% Fred Meyer 47.1% 45.3% 43.9% 49.7% 45.3% Macy's 46.1% 48.7% 45.6% 63.4% 56.0% BJ's 39.3% 31.0% 32.1% 32.0% 30.6% Lenovo 38.6% 40.1% N/A N/A N/A Meijer 38.5% 39.8% 32.4% 33.8% 39.1% HP 37.4% 27.5% 34.0% 28.5% N/A Nordstrom 36.9% N/A N/A N/A N/A Office Depot and OfficeMax 36.6% 42.6% 34.5% 43.0% 42.8% Staples 34.7% 32.0% 32.3% 33.1% 34.4% Walmart 34.3% 29.9% 34.2% 32.6% 30.1% Target 34.3% 34.8% 36.2% 28.6% 37.3% Academy Sports + Outdoors 31.8% 28.0% N/A N/A N/A Best Buy 29.5% 28.7% 30.0% 33.2% 33.5% Dell Home 28.6% 27.4% 29.3% 35.7% 35.3% Big Lots 27.9% 22.9% 24.1% 23.5% 27.1% Amazon 25.4% 29.3% 36.8% 24.7% 25.8% Harbor Freight 22.8% 23.5% 22.5% 62.6% N/A Costco 21.3% 25.1% 21.9% 25.4% 19.5% True Value 20.8% 16.3% 32.8% 31.9% N/A Ace Hardware 11.8% 21.9% 21.5% 27.7% 34.2% Overall Average 40.4% 37.0% 37.1% 39.0% 40.2%





The pie chart above displays the product categories in which discounts are more heavily concentrated, represented in percentage terms. The percentages do not represent average discounts.

The bar graph above displays the average discount percentage for each product category. Notes:





Average Store Discounts by Product Category

Retailer Apparel & Accessories Computers & Phones Consumer Electronics Consumer Packaged Goods Toys Appliances Academy Sports + Outdoors 28.21% N/A N/A N/A 33.42% 31.88% Ace Hardware N/A N/A N/A 8.93% N/A 12.98% Amazon 25.07% 24.48% 25.20% 29.21% 28.63% 27.46% Bealls Florida 58.28% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Belk 56.24% 35.36% 41.86% 41.73% 42.24% 53.93% Best Buy N/A 27.67% 27.32% N/A 32.69% 30.04% Big Lots N/A N/A N/A 32.76% 35.19% N/A BJ's N/A 28.47% 38.87% N/A 31.16% 31.14% Costco 21.89% 21.50% 25.08% N/A N/A 26.75% Dell Home N/A 27.95% 32.68% N/A N/A N/A Dick's Sporting Goods 41.40% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Fred Meyer 50.82% 24.12% 52.28% 4.01% 32.71% 55.56% Harbor Freight N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A HP N/A 37.47% N/A N/A N/A N/A JCPenney 58.87% 53.10% 47.39% 57.95% 46.39% 55.55% Kmart 51.59% N/A N/A N/A 44.10% 30.84% Kohl's 55.23% 28.56% 41.63% N/A 43.40% 41.43% Lenovo N/A 38.53% N/A N/A N/A N/A Macy's 42.70% 30.89% N/A 49.00% N/A 32.89% Meijer 64.54% 32.92% 36.26% N/A 41.29% 42.35% New York & Company 56.09% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Nordstrom 42.11% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Office Depot and OfficeMax N/A 34.68% 37.02% 43.67% N/A N/A Sears 57.83% N/A N/A N/A N/A 47.59% Stage* 56.36% N/A N/A N/A N/A 74.88% Staples N/A 34.20% 36.67% 45.64% N/A N/A Target 33.97% 26.40% 28.24% N/A 38.40% 39.56% True Value N/A N/A N/A 17.53% N/A 13.51% Walmart 25.17% 32.66% 28.92% N/A 24.89% 45.98% Overall Average 45.91% 31.70% 35.67% 33.04% 36.50% 38.57%

Retailer Furniture Jewelry Books, Movies & Music Video Games (Software Only) All Other Product Categories Academy Sports + Outdoors N/A N/A N/A N/A 32.31% Ace Hardware N/A N/A N/A N/A 8.31% Amazon 19.84% 19.06% 30.95% N/A 25.17% Bealls Florida N/A N/A N/A N/A 69.34% Belk N/A 71.73% N/A N/A 59.39% Best Buy N/A N/A 57.04% 46.27% 43.42% Big Lots 26.75% N/A N/A N/A 35.34% BJ's 43.79% N/A N/A N/A 38.77% Costco 21.68% 16.61% N/A N/A 26.13% Dell Home N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Dick's Sporting Goods N/A N/A N/A N/A 53.07% Fred Meyer 53.36% N/A N/A N/A 55.28% Harbor Freight N/A N/A N/A N/A 22.95% HP N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A JCPenney 69.52% 61.16% N/A N/A 63.78% Kmart N/A N/A N/A N/A 56.27% Kohl's 50.00% 70.19% 32.68% N/A 63.46% Lenovo N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Macy's 41.13% 48.68% N/A N/A 48.27% Meijer N/A N/A N/A 33.53% 42.02% New York & Company N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Nordstrom N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Office Depot and OfficeMax 38.11% N/A N/A N/A 43.42% Sears N/A N/A N/A N/A 55.06% Stage* N/A N/A N/A N/A 75.21% Staples 33.11% N/A N/A N/A 56.37% Target N/A N/A 15.13% 48.17% 43.04% True Value 35.67% N/A N/A N/A 31.34% Walmart N/A N/A 73.18% 51.08% 26.58% Overall Average 39.36% 47.91% 41.80% 44.76% 44.76%

*Includes the retailer’s five brands: Stage, Bealls (not to be confused with Bealls of Florida), Goody's, Palais Royal and Peebles

Ask the Experts

The savviest Black Friday shoppers can tell the good deals from the bad — and are likely to save the most money. We asked several experts to share some of their shopping smarts with budget-conscious consumers. Click on the experts’ profiles to read their bios and thoughts on the following key questions:

How can consumers distinguish between real Black Friday deals and marketing traps? How can consumers protect themselves from overspending on Black Friday? Which day do you believe people get the best deals: Black Friday, Cyber Monday or another day? Why? What are some tips for maximizing bargains on Black Friday? Which types of products are better to buy on Black Friday than on Cyber Monday?

Methodology

In order to determine the retailers offering the most money-saving bargains this coming Black Friday, WalletHub surveyed nearly 8,000 deals from 29 of the biggest U.S. retailers’ 2019 Black Friday ad scans and calculated the average discount that each retailer plans to offer. The average discount was weighted based on the prediscounted price of the item in order to give more credit to the retailers discounting higher-ticket items. Our sample excludes deals that did not have calculable percentage markdowns.

We then organized the deals into 11 product categories such as “Apparel & Accessories,” “Consumer Electronics” and “Video Games.” When calculating the category averages, we took into account only the retailers that had at least five discounted items in that particular category.

For this report, we examined the following 29 retailers:

Academy Sports + Outdoors Ace Hardware Amazon Bealls Florida Belk Best Buy Big Lots BJ's Costco Dell Home Dick's Sporting Goods Fred Meyer Harbor Freight HP JCPenney Kmart

Kohl's Lenovo Macy's Meijer New York & Company Nordstrom Office Depot and OfficeMax Sears Stage (includes its five brands: Stage, Bealls (not to be confused with Bealls of Florida), Goody's, Palais Royal and Peebles) Staples Target True Value Walmart

Amazon did not provide all the requested info for all their Black Friday deals. As a result, some deals could not be included in our calculations. A total of 251 deals were included.



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Sources: Data used to conduct this study were collected from BFAds.net.

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