A recovering economy means good news for retailers, with holiday sales expected to jump 4.1 percent to $616.9 billion — and you can expect many retailers to make deep discounts to lure buyers in.

According to the National Retail Federation, the average increase each year for holiday sales between November and December has been 2.9 percent for the past decade, indicating greater financial stability for Americans. That is reflected in deep discounts by retailers who are looking to get “into the black” this year with some big sales.

JCPenney leads the pack with an average discount of a whopping 65.44 percent, according to WalletHub, which surveyed 5,525 deals from Black Friday ad scans for the 22 biggest U.S. retailers. The site determined the average markdown of the items.

Macy’s, Rite Aid, Meijer, and Sears rounded out the top five, with each offering discounts of at least 50 percent. Walgreens, Office Depot and OfficeMax, Ace Hardware, Kohl’s, and Staples also offered significant savings to holiday shoppers.

You won’t find retail giant Walmart near the top though, as WalletHub found savings of just 32.16 percent on average, placing it closer to te bottom. Electronics big box store Best Buy also performed poorly in comparison at 32.08 percent.

Online retail giant Amazon was near the bottom with 26.10 percent.

The worst performed of the 22 surveyed was Costco, which offered a Scrooge-like 21.14 percent discount.

Rajashri Srinivasan, professor for the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, told WalletHub that consumers “have to do homework on product quality … and prices of the products” to distinguish between a real deal and a marketing trap.

In order to avoid overspending on Black Friday, Srinivasan advised planning ahead and pre-setting their budget in order to avoid temptations.

As for whether Black Friday or the more recent phenomenon “Cyber Monday” affords better deals, she said both are great options.

“Online deals are great, often with free shipping thrown in and without the hassles of parking and crowds in the mall,” she said. “Although for bargain seekers, there may be some real value deals in the mall — which will of course require some effort.”