Best Black Friday Deals: Skip Walmart in Salem and Head to Rite Aid

By Jason Claffey

Looking for the best Black Friday deals?

Head straight to JCPenney, Macy’s, and ... Rite Aid?

That’s according to WalletHub, which says those three retailers have the highest average Black Friday discounts this year. On the flip side, Costco, Best Buy, and Walmart have the lowest average discounts.

Walmart has a store on Highland Avenue in Salem, plus on the Lynnway in Lynn and on Route 114 in Danvers. Costco has a store on Route 1 northbound in Danvers, Best Buy has a store at Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers plus at Square One Mall in Saugus.

Rite Aid has a store in the small plaza at 377 Cabot St. in Beverly and two stores in Lynn on Lewis Street and Boston Street - plus other North Shore locations in Ipswich, Saugus, Gloucester and Rockport. J.C. Penny has a store at Northshore Mall in Peabody, where Macy’s also has a store, as well as the Square One Mall in Saugus.

WalletHub, a personal finance service, ranked major retailers in its Best and Worst Retailers for Black Friday Deals survey. Here are the five retailers with the highest average discounts:

• JCPenney, 65 percent discount
• Macy’s, 54%
• Rite Aid, 53%
• Meijer, 51%
• Sears, 50%

And these are the five retailers with lowest discounts:

• Costco, 21%
• Big Lots, 25%
• Amazon, 26%
• Best Buy, 32%
• Walmart 32%

With the U.S. economy gaining strength, total retail sales this holiday season are expected to hit $617 billion—an increase of 4 percent from last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

Here’s more from WalletHub: