My favourite part of
a store is the sale section. Sometimes I
feel bad for the sales staff, so I browse around half-heartedly in the new
arrivals before drifting to my real destination-- the sale section. It's usually in the back, it's usually messy,
and often it's weird stuff no one wants anyways.
(c) JMGRIFFIN via sxc.hu
I often read about the great deals people get
when thrifting, but I feel like I'm never particularly enthused about thrifting
myself, and I think this is because I can often get almost as good a deal on
new items. How, you ask? By learning how to shop sales. Most of this is trial and error, but here are
a few things I've learned.
- Don't be a store snob.
(c) Louis Vuitton
You
may have a terrible J. Crew addiction or undying loyalty to Anthropologie, but
don't restrict yourself to one store or a certain type of store even. I often find great pieces where I'm least
expecting them! I've picked up fantastic
all leather oxfords for a song at the grocery store and once got a lovely dress
from Wal-Mart. Also, don't relegate
yourself to shops you think fit your style or are targeted to your age
group. I'd never been inside a New
York & Company store before because I thought it was for women of a
different age group. I went in one day
to look for a present for my mother and walked out with a beautiful trench coat
at 80% off! I also like to regularly
check in at Sirens, a 'club-wear' oriented store, and once was rewarded with a
$6 green maxi skirt that was a dupe of one that I'd recently seen in a J. Crew
catalog.
I
also like to shop around in stores targeted to teenage girls. You can find some trendy items at good
prices, and if you look around, not everything is too short and too tight! The men's and kids' sections can also yield
some fun pieces-- Men's sweaters can make great slouchy knits for you, and you
can sometimes find some cheaper button-downs in the boys section. Here's a secret-- I think Zara is rather
overpriced at full price, but peek into the girls department. Their shoes go up to about a size 6-7, and
I've scored some cute things at much more reasonable prices!
- Look at the discount and the final price together
It's
important to look both at what the final price of something will be, as well as
how much you'll be saving by purchasing at that price. Make sure the final price is still within
your budget! Even if a $2000 pair of
shorts is now priced at $500, giving you a savings of 75%, you're still paying
$500 for a pair of shorts.
Conversely,
if something was originally $50, and is now $45… well, that's not much of a
sale, is it? Maybe you could get a
better deal elsewhere, or wait and see if the piece gets discounted further.
- Use deals to your advantage
(c) hpliao77 via sxc.hu
Look
around for signs advertising deals and sales in that particular store. If there's a sign that reads 'Ask associate
for more details!', ask an associate for more details. If you're unsure whether something is on
sale, ask at the register. I've seen
innumerable stores attempt to be tricky with wonky sign placements or tiny
little 'and up' addendums. I've also
bought things that were even cheaper than marked when they were rung up at the
register.
If
you have time, check the store's website and see if the prices online correlate
to the brick and mortar establishment.
Make a fuss if there's a difference that you can use to your advantage. You can also check online for coupons and
coupon codes. See if you have any retail
benefits that you didn't know about.
Visa offers some (minor) discounts at some stores, as does the Student
Price Card (SPC).
Loyalty
cards are sometimes useful and sometimes not.
Free ones (usually) have no downside, but make sure to ask the staff
about the nuances. Can you use your card
discount on discounted and/or clearance merchandise? Do you have to buy a certain amount of stuff
to get a discount? And so on. For cards that cost money, can you buy one
when making a purchase large enough that the discount would outweigh the price
you would pay for the card? Credit cards
are tricky-- they often have high interest rates. Would you really use it and is the discount
worth it? Do you go to this store all
the time? You can sometimes create a
loyalty credit card for a large purchase and then cancel it as soon as
possible, but don't get stuck with it!
Ask about nuances, when you can cancel, hidden/cancellation fees, etc.
- Learn about sales
This
one comes with time. Firstly, don't get
stuck into thinking that when you see a great sale, that's it, and there won't
be as good a sale ever again. There is
one particular store I know of that perennially has closing down sales. I've also seen a store have an end-of-lease
sale and 6 months later… lo and behold, the store is in the same location. Great sales happen all the time.
However,
there are some times that you can reliably predict there will be good sales
going on. Near the end of each fashion
season, stores will be attempting to clear out the old season's merchandise to
make room for the new stuff for next season. If
you know when to shop, you can pick up seasonal items for good prices. Generally, I see seasonal clearances begin around the middle of that season (for example: clearance summer merchandise will begin appearing in late June and early July).
Some
stuff goes on sale, some doesn't. Generally it's a crapshoot, but there are
some things you can reasonably predict will be offered at a discount later:
- Trendy items
Very
trendy and of-the-moment things like coloured denim, crop tops, high-waisted
bellbottom jeans, scarf-printed items and things of this nature I would expect
to be able to find at a good discount, since they are not likely to become
classic items in the history of fashion.
- Weird stuff
May
or may not be trendy. Strange
silhouettes or wild prints (especially on things like, say, pants) will
probably be offensive enough to a good proportion of the population that they
won't sell well and will be discounted in the future.
- Ubiquitous items and basics
You
can just find enough of these everywhere that through sheer numbers, I would
expect to find some on sale. Take for
example a tank top or dark wash skinny jeans; you're gonna find that stuff
everywhere and eventually one will be on sale.
Here's
things I wouldn't expect to go on sale:
- Specialty items
Things
like convertible/strapless bras, shapewear, insoles, ski jackets, running shoes
and other things that are more functional rather than aesthetic. You can shop around for a better price, but
generally you're going to have to buy this stuff full-price.
- Designer pieces
The
sales are not really that great when they do happen, and if you're coveting a
specific piece, I wouldn't bank on it going on sale. There's the added tangle of limited
production and likely a lot of other people coveting the same thing.
Lastly,
learn about how a particular store runs sales.
Mostly all this requires is going into said store a lot to browse. For example, I don't generally buy anything
full-price at Suzy Shier, as generally, all of their merchandise will
eventually go to 50% off. At RW&Co,
I know sometimes they run an 'extra 50% off all sale merchandise' promotion,
and I try to wait until that's happening until purchasing. If I find something I really love at Forever
21, I don't even know if I'm going to find it again in an hour, so I usually
get it.
You
can also learn about specific stores by reading fashion and style blogs-- there
are numerous blogs about J. Crew and Anthropologie in particular (that I've
noticed), and you can get alerts on when specific things go on sale or when
specific sale events occur. You can also
get a sense of their sale cycles and learn how to somewhat predict when the
best time to buy an item would be.
Now
you know all my secrets! What are your
tips for getting a good deal?
In
the next post, learn about how I put my shopping skills to good use. :)
THE CHEAP THRILLS SERIES
Thank you! <3
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