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Target will bring in seasonal and holiday merchandise throughout the year. All of these items will get clearanced at some point to get ready for the next season or holiday that comes up. The fun part is that they will clearance these items down to as low as 90% off!!!
The clearance for these items happens differently than the items in the other departments like toys, clothing, and food. You won’t find little red stickers on these items, you will usually see a sign that says “50% off” or “90%” off (that’s the fun one!). These items do not need to be marked down manually with a scanning gun, it is done by a computer, so there is a good chance when they open in the morning all the items with their new clearance prices will be ready to go.
When you are watching for holiday clearance to go down to the next level, don’t always believe what the signs say, sometimes a new markdown may have been made, but they may not have had the opportunity to change out the signs. I would use the scanners to scan an item to check to see what the markdown is. If an item is normally $5.00, and it rings up at $2.50, you know if it still 50% off. However, if it rings up and $1.25 then you know it went down to 75% off. This is like a clearance bonus!! Everybody else thinks the items are only 50% off and you know it’s 75% off. Determining when items will go 75% off is a little harder, because this markdown can depend on how much inventory is left at your store.
Holiday Clearance: The great thing about the clearance for the specific holidays, is that you know exactly when the first markdown will take place. The items for specific holidays (Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Valentines Day, etc) will all get marked down to 50% off the day AFTER the holiday. There is an exception to this rule, generally any bagged candy will usually start out at 30% off. Also, if the store seems to have a good amount of product left BEFORE the holiday, they may mark things down to 30% off to try to sell the majority of the items before the holiday arrives.
Here is the markdown levels for Holiday Clearance:
- 30% off (ocassionally BEFORE the holiday + bagged candy starts at 30% off)
- 50% off (starts the day after the holiday)
- 75% off (in recent years it seem to happen approx. a week after holiday)
- 90% off (final markdown, last at 90% off 2-3 days and then is salvaged)
Seasonal Clearance: The seasonal clearance can be considered items that are brought in for a specific season, but is not necessarily a holiday. Summer items and back to school items come to mind. The start date for these types of clearance are a little harder to determine, because it isn’t a one day holiday event. Clearance seasonal items can include lots of really useful items. The clearance for summer can include, water bottles, outdoor toys, folding chairs, ice chests, ice cream makers and even ziploc bags with summer themes.
A good way to stay on top of these clearance deals is to “like” the Thrifty and Thriving Facebook page, if I am at the store and I see a markdown has been made I will post it directly onto the Facebook page from phone while I am still at the store.
Seasonal Clearance levels:
- 30% off (I usually ignore this markdown – 30% off is boring!)
- 50% off (good selection -I ignore this markdown too, I’m a 75% off kind of gal)
- 75% off (get there soon & should be able to find a decent amount of items left)
- 90% off (pretty picked over, but there are still deals to be found)
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Nuria says
I have read that the 75% off happens four days after whatever holiday. For example, the after Halloween will happen November 4th. Is that true?