Americans are obsessed with deals. Why else would we camp outside our favorite stores after a big holiday feast or force ourselves awake in the early morning to browse the virtual shopping aisles? The truth is that many of us find pleasure in buying merchandise at the deepest discounts and knowing we beat our fellow sale-addicted shoppers to the punch.
But while Black Friday is traditionally associated with the best prices, we should pause from our spending and ask how good of a deal we are really getting. According to WalletHub’s holiday shopping survey, 52 percent of consumers said they don’t think Black Friday offers the most unbeatable bargains of the year.
To separate myth from fact, WalletHub compared pre- and actual Black Friday prices for a broad selection of items. Using the price difference of each item, we isolated the offers that are truly worth the hassle of participating in America’s biggest shopping craze. You can find our complete ranking of the best items to buy on Black Friday, expert commentary and a detailed explanation of our methodology below.
Black Friday Price After Discount: $650
Pre-Black Friday Price*: $1,250
Additional Discount for Waiting Until Black Friday: $600
Office Depot and OfficeMax
Black Friday Price After Discount: $220
Pre-Black Friday Price*: $616
Additional Discount for Waiting Until Black Friday: $396
Academy Sports + Outdoors
Black Friday Price After Discount: $150
Pre-Black Friday Price*: $609
Additional Discount for Waiting Until Black Friday: $459
Academy Sports + Outdoors
Black Friday Price After Discount: $398
Pre-Black Friday Price*: $553
Additional Discount for Waiting Until Black Friday: $155
Walmart
*Depending on an item, our research team collected one or more of its advertised prices between Oct. 18 and Nov. 15. The “Pre-Black Friday Price” is the lowest of those prices for each item.
Best & Worst Product Categories
Percentages were calculated based on only the items in each category that matched offers posted on Amazon.com prior to Black Friday.
Below is a comparison of retailers according to the percentage of “good” deals they offer — that is, compared with the same products from Amazon.com. If the price offered by retailers is lower than the price on Amazon.com, this was considered a good deal, with the opposite representing a bad deal. Please note that complete data were not available for some items and therefore were excluded from our analysis.
*Depending on an item, our research team collected one or more of its advertised prices between Oct. 18 and Nov. 15. The “Pre-Black Friday Price” is the lowest of those prices for each item. **A negative value indicates that a shopper would spend less by waiting until Black Friday to purchase the item.
Ask the Experts
Is Black Friday really the best time to buy on a discount, or is it just a marketing ploy? We asked a panel of experts to share some insider secrets for Black Friday shoppers. Click on the experts’ profiles below to read their bios and responses to the following key questions:
What types of products are better to buy on Black Friday versus other times of the year?
Should most consumers ignore promotional deals where retailers provide deep discounts on a limited stock of an item? How can consumers judge if these “doorbusters” are worth the race to snag a deal?
What is a good strategy for identifying the best deals on Black Friday?
All things considered, are Black Friday discounts worth the hassle?
Ask the Experts
Pia A. Albinsson Ph.D., John W. Guffey Jr. Professor of Marketing, Appalachian State University, Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management Read More
Jaye Thompson MBA – Lecturer, Retail Merchandising, College of Design, University of Minnesota Read More
Pedro M. Gardete Assistant Professor of Marketing, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Read More
Umesh Kumar Lecturer, State University of New York at Canton Read More
Scott D. Johnson Ph.D. – Dean, School of Management, Professor of Marketing, University of Michigan-Flint Read More
Vallari Chandna Associate Professor of Management, Chair of the Marketing & Management Department and Chair of the MS in Management Program, Austin E. Cofrin School of Business, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay Read More
More Experts
Methodology
In order to determine the best and worst items to buy on Black Friday, WalletHub first determined each item’s “Pre-Black Friday Price” by collecting its advertised price on Amazon.com between Oct. 18 and Nov. 15. For certain items, we collected two prices during that period and in such cases chose the lowest to represent the “Pre-Black Friday Price.”
We then collected the advertised price on 2019 Black Friday Ads for the same item on Black Friday in order to determine its “Black Friday Price.” Our sample excludes deals that did not have calculable percentage markdowns.
Finally, we ranked the items according to the overall difference in their prices between the two dates and determined which products would pay off the most for a shopper’s Black Friday hassle.
Sources: Data used to conduct this study were collected from BFAds.net and Amazon.com.
