NEW YORK - Shopping on Black Friday is one of the country's most treasured holiday traditions, from getting up early to standing in endless lines at stores and trying to find deals through crowds of other shoppers — all in the name of savings. But which stores offer the best discounts, and for which items? From JCPenney and Macy's, to Walmart and Costco – here is WalletHub's report on 2022’s Best Places to Shop on Black Friday.
Best Black Friday Retailers (Avg. % Discount)
1. JCPenney (64.71%)
2. Belk (64.23%)
3. Macy's (53.05%)
4. Office Depot and OfficeMax (49.93%)
5. Kohl's (44.23%)
6. Lenovo (40.67%)
7. Target (32.87%)
8. Big Lots (32.86%)
9. Academy Sports + Outdoors (31.10%)
10. The Home Depot (30.90%)
11. Newegg (28.5%)
12. Walmart (28.4%)
13. BJ's (27.6%)
14. Amazon (25.7%)
15. Best Buy (22.9%)
16. Costco (16.8)
JCPenney has the highest overall discount rate at 64.71%, while Costco has the lowest at 16.80%. The overall average discount for Black Friday is 37%. Wallethub says shoppers should aim for this discount amount or higher to avoid Black-Friday traps.
Where the Discounts are Concentrated
1. Apparel & Accessories (21.09%)
2. Appliances (12.32%)
3. Computers & Phones (10.99%)
4. Jewelry (9.90%)
5. Toys (9.47%)
6. Consumer Electronics (7.18%)
7. Consumer Packaged Goods (5.29%)
8. Furniture (3.73%)
The "Apparel & Accessories" category has one of the biggest shares of discounted items – 21.09% of all offers – while the "Furniture" category has the smallest at 3.73%. All other product categories made up for 20.03% of the list.
Black Friday sales have also been changing during the past few years – they are starting earlier, weeks ahead of the actual shopping holiday at some stores. That’s good news for consumers who want to stretch out their purchases over a longer period of time rather than buying everything in one day.
WalletHub surveyed nearly 4,000 deals from 16 of the biggest U.S. retailers' 2022 Black Friday ad scans to come up with the list. Last year, Americans shopped from home on Black Friday more than they did in stores. Sales drew 66.5 million Americans to shop in person and 88 million to shop online.