10 stores where SC shoppers can get the best Black Friday sales and gift cards, report shows

South Carolinians planning to shop on Black Friday may as well prioritize where they can stretch their dollar the most.

The annual kickoff to the holiday shopping season known as Black Friday is this week. However, though Black Friday is traditionally held the day after Thanksgiving, some stores have already begun offering deals, while others plan to soon expand their discounts over multiple days.

Black Friday sales have changed in recent years as online shopping has expanded. What once required shoppers to get up early and stand in long lines can now be done at home with the click of a button.

According to the National Retail Federation, a record 196.7 million Americans shopped in stores and online during the five-day holiday period from Thanksgiving through Monday in 2022. The total number of shoppers grew by nearly 17 million, year-over-year. More than 122.7 million people visited brick-and-mortar stores and 130.2 million did online shopping during last Black Friday weekend.

Black Friday shopping could be down in 2023, however, mainly because of high inflation most of this year. A survey from Wallethub, a major personal finance website, shows that more than one in three Americans plan to forgo gifts this year because of inflation.

To help consumers maximize their shopping in the face of higher prices, WalletHub recently surveyed about 3,500 deals from 13 of the biggest U.S. retailers’ 2023 Black Friday ad scans. The WalletHub report ranks retailers by highest overall discount rate. It also ranks stores with the largest advertised discounts in certain product categories, including apparel and accessories, computers and phones, electronics, packaged goods, toys, appliances, furniture and jewelry.

To top things off, Wallethub also released its report on the best gift cards of 2023. Wallethub compared the 50 most popular options across five major categories — how popular the cards are, how much of a discount you can buy for them, how much you can sell them for, how much people like the retailer and shipping fees.

Below are lists of the 10 retailers with the highest the percentage of discounts, the five stores with the biggest discounts by product category, and the 10 best gift cards. Note that some stores are listed in the product category sections even though they did not make it into the top 10 overall ranking.

Retailers with most discounts

1. JCPenney: 59.1%
   
   
2. Macy’s: 58.2%
   
   
3. Belk: 54.8%
   
   
4. Kohl’s: 48.8%
   
   
5. Target: 32.7%
   
   
6. BJ’s: 30.1%
   
   
7. Best Buy: 29.8%
   
   
8. Amazon: 28.5%
   
   
9. Walmart: 26.9%
   
   
10. Dell: 25.8%
    
    

Biggest discounts by category

Apparel and accessories

1. JCPenney: 57.83%
   
   
2. Belk: 54.94%
   
   
3. Macy’s: 52.56%
   
   
4. Walmart: 52.42%
   
   
5. Kohl’s: 43.56%
   
   

Computers and phones

1. Kohl’s: 37.75%
   
   
2. Best Buy: 29.43%
   
   
3. BJ’s: 28.79%
   
   
4. Target: 27.38%
   
   
5. Amazon: 25.89%
   
   

Consumer electronics

1. Newegg: 43.22%
   
   
2. Kohl’s: 40.17%
   
   
3. Best Buy: 33.44%
   
   
4. BJ’s: 29.58%
   
   
5. Amazon: 25.01%
   
   

Toys

1. Macy’s: 44.52%
   
   
2. JCPenney: 40.92%
   
   
3. Kohl’s: 36.29%
   
   
4. Target: 33.25%
   
   
5. Walmart: 27.06%
   
   

Appliances

1. Belk: 60.26%
   
   
2. JCPenney: 59.46%
   
   
3. Macy’s: 47.73%
   
   
4. Kohl’s: 40.15%
   
   
5. Walmart: 29.78%
   
   

Furniture

1. Macy’s: 47.81%
   
   
2. Target: 43.66%
   
   
3. BJ’s: 32.28%
   
   
4. The Home Depot: 26.59%
   
   
5. Costco: 23.51%
   
   

Jewelry

1. Kohl’s: 71.93%
   
   
2. Macy’s: 65.94%
   
   
3. JCPenney: 59.20%
   
   
4. Costco: 20.40%
   
   
5. None
   
   

Best gift cards

This story was originally published November 21, 2023 at 6:00 AM.

Patrick McCreless

The State

803-771-8353

Patrick McCreless is the Southeast service journalism editor for McClatchy, who leads and edits a team of six reporters in South Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi. The team writes about trending news of the day and topics that help readers in their daily lives and better informs them about their communities. He attended Jacksonville State University in Alabama and grew up in Tuscaloosa, AL.