Personal Finance

WalletHub Shares Black Friday Trends and Best Deals for 2019

It’s almost here: after weeks of “pre-Black Friday sale” ads flooding airwaves and e-mail boxes everywhere, the main event is nearly upon us. As has become tradition, this Friday retailers across the nation will woo shoppers with special “doorbusters” and other attractive pricing in a bid to kickstart the holiday shopping season. Of course, when it comes to scoring the most worthwhile deals, not all stores or offers are created equal. Thus the personal finance site WalletHub has crunched some numbers to not only reveal some Black Friday trends for 2019 but also the best (and worst) stores to shop and what items in particular might be worth a second look.

First off, one trend observed by WalletHub is that one-fifth of Black Friday deals for 2019 are actually recycled from 2018. Moreover some retailers practice repeating offers far more frequently than others. For example the site found that 60% of Harbor Freights deals this time around were on the same items as last year, with a price difference of only 1.7%. Similarly Office Depot/OfficeMax and Ace Hardware are recycling 30.5% and 29.9% of their deals respectively. In the case of Office Depot/OfficeMax, the prices on these offers have risen 7.3% from last year while costs at Ace have increased 4%.

Interestingly the struggling department store Sears is reusing 29.3% of their Black Friday promotions but the prices have actually fallen an average of 1.5% from last year. On the topic of price cutters, while Costco may only be recycling 2.4% of its offers from 2018, the prices on those items have fallen 14.4%. Meanwhile Stage has improved prices by a whopping 29.5% on the 18.8% of deals they’re repeating from last year.

Speaking of Stage, the retailer also managed to top the list of WalletHub’s “Best Places to Shop of Black Friday.” For 2019 the average discount on Black Friday deals at Stage was found to be 69.8%. That puts last year’s top dog Belk in second place with an average deal discount of 66.9%. On the other end, hardware stores Ace and True Value had the least generous offers (discounted 11.8% and 20.8% respectively) along with Costco’s 21.3% average price cut.

As for particular shopping categories, jewelry will once again be the most discounted, with an average discount of 70%. That’s followed no-so-closely by books, movies, and TV, which are expected to be 44% cheaper on the day. Elsewhere, consumer electronics and furniture will see the smallest discounts by percentage, although 25%+ can make a big difference when you’re talking high-dollar items.

Finally, turning to specific items, WalletHub recommends such deals as 50% off a JBL Soundbar and $450 off a ThinkPad T470 laptop to a half-price WWE 2k20 game and $700 off a Traeger freestanding grill. You can check out more of their top picks here.

Ultimately, while some of these deals may be helpful for those who are in the market for such items or know someone who is, the biggest thing to remember this Black Friday is not to fall into the trap of buying something you don’t need. This can certainly be tricky as many retailers will showcase how much you’re “saving.” Nevertheless, if you go in with a gameplan and stick to your list, it’s possible to make this Black Friday work for you — leading to a very happy holiday.

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