SC shoppers can get the best Black Friday deals and gift cards at these 10 stores, report shows

If you’re planning to shop in South Carolina on Black Friday, you should probably focus on getting the biggest bang for your buck.

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 begun offering deals, while others plan to 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 200.4 million consumers shopped over the five-day holiday weekend from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, surpassing last year’s record of 196.7 million people. Approximately 121.4 million consumers shopped at physical locations, while 134.2 million shopped online.

Black Friday continued its streak as the most popular day for in-store and online shopping, the NRF states.

To help consumers maximize their shopping in the face of higher prices, WalletHub surveyed more than 4,300 deals from 13 of the biggest U.S. retailers’ Black Friday ad scans to calculate the average discount that each retailer plans to offer. The WalletHub report ranked 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.

WalletHub also recently released its report on the best gift cards of 2024. 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.

Retailers with most discounts

1. JCPenney: 76.20%
   
   
2. Belk: 72.68%
   
   
3. Macy’s: 57.13%
   
   
4. Kohl’s: 43.55%
   
   
5. Walmart: 37.75%
   
   
6. The Home Depot: 32.43%
   
   
7. Amazon: 32.05%
   
   
8. BJ’s: 28.86%
   
   
9. Target: 28.65%
   
   
10. Best Buy: 28.43%
    
    

Best gift cards

1. Amazon
   
   
2. Target
   
   
3. Sephora
   
   
4. Walmart
   
   
5. Starbucks
   
   
6. Disney
   
   
7. Home Depot
   
   
8. REI
   
   
9. eBay
   
   
10. Nike
    
    

Biggest retailer discounts by category

Apparel and accessories

1. JCPenney: 52.82%
   
   
2. Belk: 51.88%
   
   
3. Amazon: 46.22%
   
   
4. Kohl’s: 42.82%
   
   
5. Macy’s: 40.49%
   
   

Computers and phones

1. Kohl’s: 39.29%
   
   
2. Amazon: 32.05%
   
   
3. Best Buy: 29.87%
   
   
4. BJ’s: 25.58%
   
   
5. Walmart: 24.23%
   
   

Consumer electronics

1. JCPenney: 58.57%
   
   
2. Belk: 39.96%
   
   
3. Walmart: 34.11%
   
   
4. Kohl’s: 30.37%
   
   
5. BJ’s: 28.91%
   
   

Toys

1. JCPenney: 60.56%
   
   
2. Kohl’s: 37.74%
   
   
3. Target: 33.03%
   
   
4. Walmart: 28.93%
   
   
5. Amazon: 24.18%
   
   

Appliances

1. JCPenney: 58.50%
   
   
2. Walmart: 44.24%
   
   
3. Kohl’s: 41.22%
   
   
4. Best Buy: 37.96%
   
   
5. The Home Depot: 34.84%
   
   

Furniture

1. Macy’s: 52.59%
   
   
2. Walmart: 50.40%
   
   
3. Target: 43.04%
   
   
4. The Home Depot: 40.60%
   
   
5. BJ’s: 35.33%
   
   

Jewelry

1. Belk: 77.08%
   
   
2. JCPenney: 76.57%
   
   
3. Macy’s: 69.95%
   
   
4. Kohl’s: 69.43%
   
   
5. Walmart: 68.42%
   
   

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.