Best Places to Shop on Black Friday

Adam McCann, Financial WriterNov 17, 2021

Adam McCann, Financial Writer
Nov 17, 2021

Black Friday shopping is one of America’s most treasured holiday traditions, but there’s always a bit of hassle involved. Traditionally, 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. Last year, in-person shopping was very limited by the COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time ever, the number of Americans who shopped online on Black Friday passed 100 million, while in-store shopping dropped by 37%. Businesses are largely open to full capacity this year, though, so we may see a resurgence in in-person shopping.

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. 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 5,000 deals from 21 of the biggest U.S. retailers’ 2021 Black Friday ad scans. Below, we’ve listed the stores offering the largest advertised discounts in various product categories such as “Jewelry” and “Appliances.”

Table of Contents

Best Places to Shop on Black Friday

Retailer	2021 Avg. % Discount by Retailer	2020 Avg. % Discount by 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
Macy's	58.5%	56.0%	46.1%	48.7%	45.6%	63.4%	56.0%
JCPenney	57.6%	56.7%	61.0%	65.1%	66.3%	62.8%	68.0%
Belk	56.7%	50.0%	66.9%	68.9%	62.8%	N/A	59.5%
Kohl's	49.3%	51.9%	57.1%	60.8%	66.3%	58.1%	66.7%
Office Depot and OfficeMax	42.8%	33.3%	36.6%	42.6%	34.5%	43.0%	42.8%
Lenovo	40.3%	44.1%	38.6%	40.1%	N/A	N/A	N/A
Nordstrom	33.2%	39.0%	36.9%	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Walmart	31.6%	27.8%	34.3%	29.9%	34.2%	32.6%	30.1%
HP	31.3%	31.7%	37.4%	27.5%	34.0%	28.5%	N/A
Big Lots	29.2%	20.0%	27.9%	22.9%	24.1%	23.5%	27.1%
Amazon	27.5%	26.5%	25.4%	29.3%	36.8%	24.7%	25.8%
Academy Sports + Outdoors	26.3%	31.5%	31.8%	28.0%	N/A	N/A	N/A
BJ's	26.1%	N/A	39.3%	31.0%	32.1%	32.0%	30.6%
Dell Home	24.3%	21.3%	28.6%	27.4%	29.3%	35.7%	35.3%
Target	22.7%	28.1%	34.3%	34.8%	36.2%	28.6%	37.3%
Best Buy	22.3%	25.3%	29.5%	28.7%	30.0%	33.2%	33.5%
Overstock.com	22.1%	22.7%	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Costco	20.5%	22.0%	21.3%	25.1%	21.9%	25.4%	19.5%
Newegg	20.0%	23.8%	N/A	28.4%	28.3%	N/A	N/A
Sam's Club	19.1%	22.6%	N/A	22.3%	N/A	28.3%	24.9%
Ace Hardware	11.7%	8.6%	11.8%	21.9%	21.5%	27.7%	34.2%
Overall Average	32.1%	32.1%	40.4%	37.0%	37.1%	39.0%	40.2%

2021 best retailers for black friday

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Notes:

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.

Average Store Discounts by Product Category

Retailer	Apparel & Accessories	Computers & Phones	Consumer Electronics	Consumer Packaged Goods	Toys
Academy Sports + Outdoors	29.40%	30.80%	32.03%	N/A	26.67%
Ace Hardware	N/A	N/A	N/A	28.77%	N/A
Amazon	24.63%	28.29%	26.79%	27.38%	26.99%
Belk	58.69%	43.80%	39.08%	23.61%	48.75%
Best Buy	N/A	26.31%	20.29%	N/A	N/A
Big Lots	N/A	N/A	N/A	11.85%	N/A
BJ's	N/A	20.87%	23.41%	N/A	39.86%
Costco	24.66%	20.13%	17.05%	N/A	N/A
Dell Home	N/A	24.34%	N/A	N/A	N/A
HP	N/A	31.30%	N/A	N/A	N/A
JCPenney	58.89%	N/A	48.84%	42.23%	54.66%
Kohl's	44.69%	37.63%	36.64%	N/A	33.24%
Lenovo	N/A	40.77%	N/A	N/A	N/A
Macy's	47.43%	53.50%	58.00%	48.91%	56.58%
Newegg	N/A	16.87%	34.08%	N/A	N/A
Nordstrom	43.97%	N/A	N/A	8.01%	N/A
Office Depot and OfficeMax	N/A	30.84%	N/A	N/A	N/A
Overstock.com	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Sam's Club	N/A	N/A	17.13%	2.62%	N/A
Target	N/A	24.37%	17.60%	N/A	21.44%
Walmart	23.14%	41.75%	19.38%	N/A	22.36%
Overall Average	39.50%	31.44%	30.03%	24.17%	36.73%

Retailer	Appliances	Furniture	Jewelry	All Other Product Categories
Academy Sports + Outdoors	15.75%	N/A	N/A	26.24%
Ace Hardware	5.10%	N/A	N/A	17.45%
Amazon	22.98%	28.05%	17.49%	31.61%
Belk	60.68%	N/A	80.22%	68.81%
Best Buy	21.51%	N/A	N/A	29.39%
Big Lots	41.91%	26.99%	N/A	28.77%
BJ's	27.65%	34.27%	N/A	23.82%
Costco	24.31%	18.89%	22.48%	24.19%
Dell Home	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
HP	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
JCPenney	53.66%	N/A	57.66%	62.84%
Kohl's	39.92%	N/A	75.58%	57.67%
Lenovo	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Macy's	57.62%	41.54%	65.97%	57.81%
Newegg	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Nordstrom	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Office Depot and OfficeMax	N/A	49.17%	N/A	N/A
Overstock.com	N/A	21.85%	N/A	22.97%
Sam's Club	25.10%	22.64%	N/A	16.54%
Target	21.99%	33.05%	N/A	26.10%
Walmart	38.14%	N/A	N/A	44.37%
Overall Average	32.59%	30.72%	53.23%	35.90%

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?

Ask the Experts

John L. Stanton
Ph.D. – Chairman & Professor of Food Marketing – Saint Joseph’s University
Read More

Rebecca Jen-Hui Wang
Ph.D. – Assistant Professor of Marketing, College of Business – Lehigh University and Research Scholar, Spiegel Research Center – Northwestern University
Read More

Joseph H. Hancock
M.S., Ph.D. – Professor and Program Director, MS Online in Retail & Merchandising – Westphal College of Media Arts and Design – Drexel University
Read More

Byoungho “Ellie” Jin
Ph.D. – President, International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA); Albert Myers Distinguished Professor of Textile Economics and Management, Department of Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management, Wilson College of Textiles – North Carolina State University
Read More

Penne L. Restad
Ph.D. – Distinguished Senior Lecturer, Emerita; Department of History, College of Liberal Arts – The University of Texas at Austin
Read More

Vanessa P. Jackson
Chair, Retailing and Tourism Management, Professor, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment – University of Kentucky
Read More

More Experts

Methodology

In order to determine the retailers offering the most money-saving bargains this coming Black Friday, WalletHub surveyed nearly 5,000 deals from 21 of the biggest U.S. retailers’ 2021 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 9 product categories such as “Apparel & Accessories,” “Consumer Electronics” and “Appliances.” 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 21 retailers:

Academy Sports + Outdoors
Ace Hardware
Amazon
Belk
Best Buy
Big Lots
BJ's
Costco
Dell Home
HP
JCPenney

Kohl's
Lenovo
Macy's
Newegg
Nordstrom
Office Depot and OfficeMax
Overstock.com
Sam's Club
Target
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 253 deals were included.

This year, many retailers have opted to release several rounds of markdowns throughout the month of November, changing their Black Friday deals on a weekly basis. All Black Friday data collected for this analysis are current as of November 17, 2021.

Sources: Data used to conduct this study were collected from each retailer’s official website and BlackFriday.com.

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