Americans are obsessed with deals, especially when it comes to Black Friday. For years, people have camped outside their favorite stores after a big Thanksgiving feast or forced themselves 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. This year, though, we can expect to see far less in-person shopping due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and discounts will be lower. In fact, 79% of merchants will “definitely” or “probably” not offer steeper discounts than last year.
While Black Friday is traditionally associated with the best prices relative to the rest of the year, we should pause from our spending and ask how good of a deal we are really getting. According to WalletHub’s holiday shopping survey, 40% of American consumers are planning to spend less during the 2020 holiday season relative to 2019.
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.
Black Friday Price After Discount: $700 Pre-Black Friday Price*: $1,450 Additional Discount for Waiting Until Black Friday: $750 Academy Sports + Outdoors
Black Friday Price After Discount: $165 Pre-Black Friday Price*: $465 Additional Discount for Waiting Until Black Friday: $300 Office Depot and OfficeMax
Black Friday Price After Discount: $120 Pre-Black Friday Price*: $307 Additional Discount for Waiting Until Black Friday: $187 Ace Hardware
*Depending on an item, our research team collected one or more of its advertised prices between Oct. 16 and Nov. 13. 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. 16 and Nov. 13. 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?
What items do you think will be in higher demand this year compared to previous years?
Ask the Experts
Aaron Ahuvia Ph.D. – Professor, Marketing, College of Business – University of Michigan - Dearborn Read More
Luke Hopkins Marketing Faculty; Director, James M. Seneff Honors Program – Florida State University Read More
Marc Kalan MBA – Assistant Professor of Professional Practice – Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey School of Business Read More
Carol Esmark Jones Ph.D. – Associate Professor, Culverhouse College of Business, Department of Marketing – University of Alabama Read More
Jaehee Jung Ph.D. – Professor, University of Delaware, Fashion & Apparel Studies Read More
Lan Nguyen Chaplin Ph.D. – Associate Professor of Marketing – University of Illinois at Chicago 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. 16 and Nov. 13. 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 2020 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 each retailer’s official website, BestBlackFriday.com and Amazon.com.
