Databases

Tips: Best and worst Black Friday retailers

Black Friday approaches, and the National Retail Federation expects total retail sales for the holiday season to reach $630.5 billion, an increase of 3.7 percent from nearly $608 billion in 2014.

The experts at personal finance website WalletHub examined more than 8,000 deals at the nation's top 30 retailers to work out which offered the highest percentage discounts on the mega-shopping day. Here is a synopsis of their work. Find the full report here. There are caveats to the data, so be sure to take a look at the methodology section below.

RetailerAverage % Discount by Retailer
JCPenney68.00%
Kohl's66.70%
Stage63.90%
Groupon63.70%
Belk59.50%
Macy's56.00%
Kmart50.10%
Panasonic47.00%
Fred Meyer45.30%
Office Depot and OfficeMax42.80%
Sears41.70%
Meijer39.10%
Hhgregg38.50%
CVS Pharmacy37.80%
Target37.30%
Modell's35.50%
Dell Home35.30%
Staples34.40%
Ace Hardware34.20%
Best Buy33.50%
Home Depot31.40%
BJ's30.60%
Wal-Mart30.10%
GameStop29.20%
Toys R Us28.90%
Walgreens28.70%
Big Lots27.10%
Amazon25.80%
Sam's Club24.90%
Costco19.50%
All Retailers40.20%

A graphical look at Black Friday retailing

More information

RetailerApparel & AccessoriesComputers & PhonesConsumer ElectronicsConsumer Packaged GoodsToysAppliances
Ace HardwareN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A44.45%
Amazon22.51%N/AN/AN/A23.34%N/A
Belk56.57%N/A48.08%53.22%60.92%48.57%
Best BuyN/A27.00%36.69%N/AN/A36.25%
Big LotsN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A
BJ's28.11%32.58%30.02%N/A18.54%31.15%
Costco18.66%31.24%35.34%N/AN/A25.98%
CVS PharmacyN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A
Dell HomeN/A34.55%N/AN/AN/AN/A
Fred Meyer58.47%27.21%50.44%N/A45.06%45.05%
GameStopN/A21.08%N/AN/AN/AN/A
Groupon84.20%32.91%63.43%N/A39.86%N/A
HhgreggN/A25.59%42.22%N/AN/A34.48%
Home DepotN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A31.45%
JCPenney63.43%N/A45.03%N/A41.42%50.72%
Kmart48.39%N/A53.33%55.97%32.92%40.10%
Kohl's60.32%33.09%41.41%27.20%49.14%43.34%
Macy's55.46%N/AN/A51.28%N/A60.48%
Meijer55.56%32.30%31.35%N/A33.13%33.62%
Modell's35.65%N/AN/AN/AN/AN/A
Office Depot and OfficeMaxN/A40.36%49.92%N/AN/AN/A
PanasonicN/A29.42%47.98%N/AN/A38.49%
Sam's ClubN/A27.25%22.52%N/A40.10%27.39%
Sears58.72%N/A33.29%N/AN/A39.83%
Stage63.28%N/A60.72%N/A57.80%59.75%
StaplesN/A33.80%35.89%N/AN/AN/A
TargetN/A30.76%39.32%N/A35.66%34.80%
Toys R Us48.69%29.94%43.11%N/A26.85%N/A
WalgreensN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A
Wal-Mart49.13%35.23%25.57%N/A22.37%35.82%
Overall Average50.45%30.84%41.78%46.92%37.65%40.09%
RetailerFurnitureJewelryBooks, Movies & MusicVideo Games (Software Only)All Other Product Categories
Ace HardwareN/AN/AN/AN/A32.68%
AmazonN/AN/A40.30%8.47%40.92%
BelkN/A61.73%N/AN/A63.97%
Best BuyN/AN/A66.66%45.86%N/A
Big Lots21.60%N/AN/AN/A32.35%
BJ'sN/AN/AN/AN/A33.21%
CostcoN/AN/AN/AN/A25.07%
CVS PharmacyN/AN/AN/AN/A29.66%
Dell HomeN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A
Fred Meyer53.74%N/AN/AN/A50.13%
GameStopN/AN/AN/A36.41%N/A
GrouponN/A84.91%N/AN/A61.29%
Hhgregg46.14%N/AN/AN/AN/A
Home DepotN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A
JCPenneyN/A69.35%N/AN/A67.10%
Kmart35.84%73.82%65.69%N/A41.14%
Kohl's64.04%73.98%N/AN/A63.53%
Macy's46.18%59.87%N/AN/A61.09%
Meijer52.82%80.23%N/AN/A45.48%
Modell'sN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A
Office Depot and OfficeMax49.07%N/AN/AN/A46.94%
PanasonicN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A
Sam's ClubN/AN/AN/AN/A21.82%
SearsN/A72.29%N/AN/A43.66%
StageN/A76.59%N/AN/A64.12%
Staples36.63%N/AN/AN/A41.36%
TargetN/AN/A59.16%N/A39.03%
Toys R Us48.71%N/A46.44%29.97%33.04%
WalgreensN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A
Wal-MartN/AN/AN/A52.11%35.12%
Overall Average45.48%72.53%55.65%34.56%44.21%

Methodology

In order to identify the retailers with the most and least money-saving bargains this coming Black Friday, WalletHub surveyed 8,000 deals from 30 of the biggest U.S. retailers’ 2015 Black Friday ad scans and calculated the average discount that each retailer plans to offer. The average discount was weighted based on the pre-discounted price of the item in order to give more credit to the retailers that are discounting higher-ticket items. The sample excludes deals that did not have calculable percentage markdowns.

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

For this report, WalletHub examined the following 30 retailers:

  1. Ace Hardware
  2. Amazon
  3. Belk
  4. Best Buy
  5. Big Lots
  6. BJ's
  7. Costco
  8. CVS Pharmacy
  9. Dell Home
  10. Fred Meyer
  11. GameStop
  12. Groupon
  13. hhgregg
  14. Home Depot
  15. JCPenney
  16. Kmart
  17. Kohl's
  18. Macy's
  19. Meijer
  20. Modell's
  21. Office Depot and OfficeMax
  22. Panasonic
  23. Sam's Club
  24. Sears
  25. Stage
  26. Staples
  27. Target
  28. Toys R Us
  29. Walgreens
  30. Wal-Mart

The following retailers did not respond to WalletHub's requests for data despite our promise to not disclose the names of their specific discounted items:

  1. Lowe’s
  2. Menard
  3. QVC
  4. Sherwin-Williams
  5. Tractor Supply Co.
  6. Neiman Marcus
  7. TJX
  8. Advance Auto Parts

Amazon did not provide all the requested info for all their Black Friday deals, so some deals could not be included in the calculations.

Source: Data used to create these rankings were obtained from BlackFriday.com.

 

Compiled by Richie Bernardo.

This story was originally published November 17, 2015 at 12:14 PM with the headline "Tips: Best and worst Black Friday retailers."

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