Shopping for Black Friday? Well, a new report shows 36 percent of Black Friday sales offer no deal at all. That’s according to a WalletHub study that tracked the prices of 3,100 items.
Chip Lupo, a writer and analyst with WalletHub, says it shows shoppers really need to do their research and that sale tags can’t always be trusted.
“Anyone can promise a deal, but you need to know where your starting point is. Because they do tend to move the goalposts a little bit to give you deals that look like deals on paper,” Lupo said.
The study determined each item’s “pre-Black Friday price” by collecting its advertised price on Amazon between Oct. 27 and Nov. 17. Then it compared those prices to the advertised price on 2025 Black Friday ads.
It found 36 percent of items offered no savings. In fact, 9.5 percent of stuff they tracked was even more expensive! (While 26.5 percent of prices stayed similar.)
“So it does require a little of homework,” Lupo said. However, he says there are still good deals out there. After all, 64 percent of items tracked *did* still have significant savings for Black Friday.
Lupo said Wallet Hub’s study found department stores tended to offer steeper discounts than online only sites, with the best savings at JC Penny and Kohls. (Belk also topped the list. The department store isn’t in Washington but of course people can shop online.)
It also found some categories of items have better sales.
“Jewelry has some tremendous discounts, apparel, and in some cases, appliances,” Lupo said.
WalletHub found cell phones and computers to have some of the worst deals, but Lupo is still expecting shoppers to go for tech.
“I think you’re going to see a rush on electronics this year because of the uncertainty of tariffs,” Lupo said.
KIRO7 has told you before: use a price tracking site like camelcamelcamel.com to look at an item’s price history. However, that tool only works for Amazon. Other price trackers like Honey still are unable to scrape the entire internet shopping world.
So Lupo says for a lot of items, your best bet is to go old school – get out the pen and paper and start tracking prices early.
“When the Labor Day sales come in, whether it’s on a notebook or on a spreadsheet, just keep doing it (recording prices) manually,” Lupo said. “It’s very important to have a starting point to truly know if you’re getting a good deal.”
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