With one week to go until the biggest shopping day of the year, you're probably being deluged with Black Friday ads, promotions and coupons in your email inbox and mailbox. It can be tough to figure out how best to apportion your holiday gift budget to secure the best deals.
WalletHub is here to help. The personal finance site surveyed 5,525 Black Friday ad scans from 22 of the country's biggest U.S. retailers, including the world's largest store chain, Walmart, and competitors Kmart, Sears and more.
WalletHub's data gurus calculated the average discount offered by each of these retailers on Black Friday, weighted based on the pre-discounted price of each sale item in order to give more credit to stores discounting higher-ticket products like electronics or jewelry.
Their results show mall stalwarts
JCPenney: 65.44%
Macy's: 53.52%
Rite Aid: 53.34%
Meijer: 50.85%
Sears: 50.19%
Walgreens: 46.74%
Ace Hardware: 41.01%
Kohl's: 39.89%
Staples: 38.56%
Missing from this list: Walmart, which came 18th on WalletHub's list, offering an average savings of 32.16%, below the 39% average of these large retailers surveyed. Costco's Black Friday discounts also proved disappointing per this study, with an average markdown of 21.14%.
Bargain hunters might be wondering where online giant Amazon.com figures among these brick and mortar competitors.
"Amazon did not provide all the requested info for all their Black Friday deals. As a result some deals could not be included in the calculations," writes WalletHub's Richie Bernardo. Other retailers who wouldn't play ball: Apple, Home Depot, IKEA and Lowe's.
Check out WalletHub's detailed findings, including more of this year's laggards, here.
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