May 06 2009
Clearance Racks are My Friend
When I work my part-time retail job, I notice more and more shoppers heading straight for the clearance racks. Can you blame them? I’m always scouring the racks for great bargains for my daughters. I refuse to pay full price, and most times I won’t even look at a rack if it’s marked less than 50% off. A note to the kind folks at Target: 15% is not clearance, it’s a sale. You may be trying to “clear” the merchandise out of your store, but I’m not fooled by the clearance signs. However, after Easter my mother-in-law found some great bargains on baskets for next year… 75% off, so I’m not completely knocking Target’s clearance racks.
I began my clearance shopping for buying a year ahead. When stores marked down their winter clothes I tried to guess what size my daughters would be wearing next year. So far I’ve generally been on the mark. Then I started noticing as the economy changed stores seemed to be marking things down earlier than normal. For instance, this week at Kohl’s the clearance racks already have spring/summer clothes marked down at least 60%.
Some of the deals I’ve found in the last few months: a convection toaster oven originally $80 marked down to $20, shirts for my daughters for $3, shirts for me for $2, work shirts for Hubby for $10.
Times are tight for many families. I’m not suggesting anyone has time to spend all afternoon searching the clearance racks, but when you do go into a store, take a minute to check them out. You never know what bargains you’ll find.
9 Responses to “Clearance Racks are My Friend”
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some great advice. ok im going to tell on myself a couple weeks ago my son said lets go to goodwill i was like why he said come look and see. so we went to my surprise we found some cool clothes some with tags on them still name brad stuff abercrombie and tommy stuff for a few bucks all i had to do come home wash it.
I shop the clearance racks too! I get some great buys!! One time we got shirts for 97 cents a piece plus a buy one get one 1/2 price on top!! What a bargain!!
Clearance is awesome!! I’ve also noticed more “in season” items going on clearance racks early. Great news for the bargain shoppers.
Aaron: I’m all for second hand shops, too. You can find some great deals there and brand names as well. 95% of my daughters’ shoes come from thrift stores since toddlers don’t tend to wear their shoes out.
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MaryAnne: Ok, so I work at Kohl’s and have an employee discount on top of any other discounts, but I specifically wanted to work at Kohl’s because of the great deals. If I’m going to shop there anyway…
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Slcolman: 97 cents? Now that is my kind of shopping
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Ckcramer: I haven’t had a chance to check out this latest round of spring markdowns but I’m hoping by the weekend they’re still there. When things that are in season are clearanced it’s like finding an early Christmas present.
I’m all for bargain shopping too. Paying full price doesn’t make sense when there are so many great deals to be had
I guess I could understand if you have a specific event to go to and need an outfit, but I try to make it a habit to NEVER pay full price. Eventually it will be on sale.
Yes, you can find some great treasures in the clearance racks. Take advantage of the clearance clothes for your girls as long as you can. It doesn’t take long before they figure out they like the newly displayed (full price) clothes better! My daughter finally figured out that my purse does NOT hold an endless supply of money, so she gets more new things if we take advantage of clearances and good sales.
Also, you were one of the Pay It Forward winners! Email me your address and I’ll send you your prize!
I’m just waiting until all four of them need the “in” styles. Right now I can get away with hand me downs and last seasons hot items.