Everybody knows a clearance sale champion. This is your friend or family member who is constantly regaling you with tales of her triumphs at clearance sales. Maybe she just showed you the designer gown she found for $30. Or perhaps she was recently boasting about the new dishes she purchased at less than 20% of their original price.
The question you always want to task her is how does she do it? How does she find such great finds? You go shopping at clearance sales; you might even find items discounted to 50% or 60% of their original price. But you just can’t seem to pull off the steals of a clearance sale champion.
Succeeding at clearance sales requires that you be prepared to hunt while you shop. Displays of clearance merchandise are often jumbled piles of all manner of things. Big bargains aren’t going to jump off the shelves at you. You’ll need to take your time sifting through the mess to find the hidden gems. True clearance sale champions are patient enough to give each item the appropriate amount of attention.
Planning ahead is also the sign of a clearance sale champion. Sure, you know at Christmas time that you need a new Christmas tree skirt. The clearance sale champion, however, realized as she put away her Christmas decorations last year that she needed a new tree skirt and started shopping for it then. She took her time looking for a great deal on a skirt that she loved and found it hidden in the back of a shelf at TJ Maxx. To be really successful at clearance sale shopping you have to learn to shop off-season.
Finally, clearance sale champions are experts at finding ways to layer discounts. They know which websites will let them redeem multiple promotion codes. And they know which stores will let them apply more than one discount. One of my favorites is the “Percentage Off Your Entire Purchase” coupons. Imagine the excitement of finding something marked down to 25% of its original price and then being able to use a coupon to save another 20%. When you’re checking out, be sure to tell the salesperson about any coupons you have. You may be surprised how many of them they’ll let you use.
{ 0 comments… add one now }