ICYMI: Best Black Friday Department Store Deals in Alexandria Area

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- Ready to do some shopping on Black Friday? Wondering where the best deals are? With total holiday spending expected to reach $656 billion this year — up from nearly $631 billion in 2015 — the personal-finance Web site WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2016's Best Stores for Black Friday.

WalletHub surveyed 8,000 deals from 35 of the biggest U.S. retailers’ 2016 Black Friday ad scans to identify the stores offering the biggest discounts in various product categories, such as “Appliances,” “Jewelry” and “Toys.”

Also read: Black Friday Shopping at Alexandria Boutiques

Some of the stores on the list have locations in the Alexandria area, including Macy's at Landmark Mall, Pentagon City and Springfield Town Center; JC Penney at Landmark Mall; Kohl's in Kingstowne and Sears at Landmark Mall. (Call your local store for specific time information; not all times were available for Black Friday.)

Best Black Friday Retailers (average percent discount)

• Macys (63.35 percent) Black Friday doors open Thursday at 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.; doors open again Friday at 5 a.m.
• Stage (62.81 percent)
• JCPenney (62.79 percent) Black Friday doors open Thursday at 3 p.m.
• Harbor Freight (62.58 percent)
• Gordmans (61.59 percent)
• Kohl's (58.15 percent) Black Friday doors open Thursday at 6 p.m.
• Shopko (55.55 percent)
• Fred Meyer (49.70 percent)
• Craft Warehouse (45.03 percent)
• Sears (43.89 percent) Black Fridays doors open Thursday at 6 p.m.; opens at 5 a.m. Friday

According to the WalletHub study:

• Macy's has the highest overall discount rate at 63.35 percent, whereas Big Lots has the lowest at 23.52 percent.
• The overall average discount for Black Friday is 39 percent. Consumers should aim for this discount amount or higher to avoid Black-Friday "traps."
• The “Toys” category has the biggest share of discounted items, 28.26 percent of all offers, whereas the “Books, Movies and Music” category has the smallest, at 0.93 percent.

Read the full WalletHub report here.

PHOTO: Patch file photo