How to Shop Clearance Sales
Clearance Sales Offer Big Savings for Your Budget
Clearance sales are great for your personal budget. Save more money with some planning and by knowing where to find the best clearance sales online or in stores.
Shelf space and warehouse storage space cost retailers money so when seasons change, clearance sales offer deep discounts to get products moving off the shelves. Do some planning before you shop clearance sales to save time and make the most of this money-saving opportunity.
Save Time Clearance Sale Shopping
Shopping clearance sales is time-consuming, so you will need to decide how much of your time is worth spending browsing clearance racks and sales on web sites. Read Saving Money or Time - Is Your Bargain Hunting Stressing You Out? for guidelines on how much time to spend shopping clearance sales or comparing prices.
Take Inventory: To save time shopping clearance sales know what you need before you shop by taking inventory of your possessions. Knowing what you already own prevents being swept away by a clearance deal and buying something that is already in a drawer or closet at home. While taking inventory, pull out items you no longer use but that are in good condition and pack them up to drop off at a charity while you are out hitting a clearance sale.
Use a Price Book: Keeping a price book is very important for knowing whether any sale item is truly a deal. Retailers sometimes use clearance events to market items with clearance tags but without a clearance price. Keep a price book and check it while you shop to avoid wasting time browsing sale merchandise that does not offer deep discounts.
Clearance at Large Stores
Check clearance racks and shelves at the end of aisles in large stores such as Target, Wal-Mart and other large retail chains for deals on clothes, shoes, toys, yard care and other items. An interesting fact about clearance sales at Target, Wal-Mart and other stores is that clearance merchandise is often marked down multiple times. For example, Target may put several pair of toddler shoes on clearance at 10 percent off. The shoes that do not sell within one week are then marked for clearance at 15 percent off, shoes that still remain after another week get a 20 percent off discount and so on.
Clearance at Small Local Stores
Small stores in your area may have good clearance sales as well and are worth looking into if you have time, or you can always call to ask what types of items the store has marked down for clearance. Small retail stores cannot mark clearance items with deep discounts like larger stores do because they cannot absorb loss in profit like a larger operation can. But you can sometimes negotiate prices with small store owners, which is usually not the case with a large chain store.
Online Clearance Sales
Do not forget online stores for clearance sales. JCPenney, Land's End, Eddie Bauer and eBags as well as smaller online outlets offer excellent savings with end of season clearance sales. Large online stores sell clearance items quickly because they give advance notice of sales to customers via email before advertising sales publicly. Be sure you are in the loop for sale notifications by signing up to get these notices emailed to you directly. You will find the link to sign up for clearance and other sale notifications at the bottom of the web sites at most online retailers.
A word of caution on shipping costs: Shipping costs can wipe out your savings. Find out what shipping costs are by clicking on a link for customer service, FAQs, or shipping on the site, then do a quick check for coupon or promo codes you can use for free or reduced shipping, or to save even more money on your order which will indirectly defray shipping costs.
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