How do you quantify what the “best” deals are, on Black Friday or any other day of the year? The most important factor should be whether the retailer sells stuff that you actually want, of course, and the value that those items provide for the money. Yet the sport of deal-hunting is all about the discounts, and WalletHub decided to compile raw percentages to figure out the best places to shop after Thanksgiving this year.

For their raw rankings, WalletHub simply calculated the percent off that each deal that retailers have announced in advance of Black Friday represents. In news that will surprise no one, here are the top ten finishers:

JCPenney: 68.0%
Kohl’s: 66.7%
Stage: 63.9%
Groupon: 63.7%
Belk: 59.5%
Macy’s: 56.0%
Kmart: 50.1%
Panasonic: 47.0%
Fred Meyer: 45.3%
OfficeMaxDepot: 42.8%

Note that the top two finishers there, JCPenney and Kohl’s, are retail chains that have specifically been accused by consumers of deliberately setting prices high so they can then offer huge discounts off prices that no consumer ever actually paid.

They also broke down the best deals by percentage for each category: for example, Groupon offers the best deals for apparel and accessories, with an average discount of 84.2%, but the key question is whether Groupon usually offers any fashion items that you would actually want to wear: as a site consisting of curated deals, they offer a limited selection of items at very high discounts.

OfficeMaxDepot has the best deals on computers and phones, and Walmart comes in second, but you’d have to check the actual items for sale to find out whether either retailer is actually selling anything that you want.

Don’t just head out and look for the lowest prices: do research before and during the shopping-frenzy season to make sure that you know what you’re looking for, and not just letting yourself be dazzled by big discounts.

Also, keep in mind that deals repeat themselves: WalletHub also tracks which Black Friday deals are identical to deals offered by the same retailers last year.

2015’s Best & Worst Retailers for Black Friday Deals [WalletHub]

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