How to Bargain Hunt like a pro: Part Two- Off Price

This is all about how to find the best bargains at "off-price" stores.

A few things to keep in mind before you walk in to one of these stores:

1.Don't be too specific- Sometimes we walk in knowing exactly what we are looking for, but at places like this, you will have a much better time if you go just enjoying yourself and hopefully find a few things that are a great price. If you have this one particular thing in a particular color that you want...you may not find it.

2. The stores do not look fancy- Part of the way you get such a big discount is that they cut down on unnecessary decorations to make the store look "cool". Sometimes (more with stores at the bottom of the list), they may even start to look a little cluttered or disorganized. Most of the time, it's not a big deal, but just don't have the expectation that you will walk into a store that looks like the loft, or you will be highly disappointed. The reason The Loft looks so beautiful is so they can draw your attention to the fun posters and models, and away from the fact that they are charging you way to much for your clothes. Keep that in mind, and keep your expectations realistic. The prices at these stores speak for themselves.

3. Be picky about how much you buy- I will say it from experience. It is easy to walk into a store like this, and because you can afford most everything, you want to buy all of it. Not a good idea. I find that buying a few things that I really really like is much better in the long run that buying a ton of things that looked awesome at the time but you don't end up using them. A good rule to follow: only get things that are actually filling a hole in a need that you already have. Getting things you have never thought about before means you haven't needed them yet, and you probably won't in the future.

Although finding clearance at almost any store is always an option, if you want to be sure that everything in the whole store is at least 20-60% off, the best way to shop is at the stores that buy new things from other stores and mark them way down (off-price). These are the nation-wide off-price stores I know of in no particular order, but please comment and share your own!

Big Lots
Ross
Marhalls
Tuesday Morning
Home Goods
TJ Maxx



MYTH: Merchandise at off-price stores is either from last season, or has something seriously wrong with it.
REALITY: After shopping at these stores for over 15 years, I have rarely come across anything that has a huge defect. Once you understand where these stores get their merchandise from and why, you can put your skepticism to rest.

How and why most of these stores get their merchandise:
Most of the time, off-price stores get their merchandise because another store
(like Macy's for example) ordered too many of a particular item. They sell it to a store like TJ Maxx for a very reduced price, and that enables TJ Maxx to sell you the exact same product you see at Macy's for 20-60% off. More than once, I have had a friend bought something from a store at full price, and in the same season I will buy the same thing for 1/4 of what they paid. The look on their face when I tell them how much I paid is priceless. A few times I have purchased something full price myself, and then I saw it a few months later at an off-price store for a fraction of the price. Needless to say I was kicking myself that I didn't just wait a little bit.

Though the majority of the merchandise at stores like this comes from buying overstock, they do also buy merchandise that is from a previous season or has a small defect. Often times if there is a defect, they will take an additional % off of the price (see "Bargain Hunting like a pro: Part One- The Basics" for how to do this and to get the most off at retail stores).


The above stores vary in quality and style of merchandise they carry. I will give a description of each as well as where to go for what.

Home Goods
This is a store dedicated to "home goods". You won't find clothes here, but they have just about everything you could ever want for your home. Pots and pans, area rugs, bathroom accessories, and lighting of all shapes and sizes. Everything in their store is high quality, and in my opinion the best selection of home goods anywhere. I would recommend anything in this store. This is a really fun shopping experience. For the most part, the store is neatly kept,and even if you don't end up buying that much, it is so fun to look around and know that you could if you wanted to! NOTE: Many times, Home Goods and Marshall's will be right next to each other, or even connected!


TJ Maxx
This is most upscale of all the stores that carry clothing. You will find very expensive brands here, so overall the prices tend to be a little higher than Ross or Marshalls, but you are getting clothing and household items that cost a fortune at full price. There is even a section in some stores called "Runway at Maxx" that carries clothing from American and European designers. Basically everything in the this store is top of the line merchandise, and you can really get awesome clearance finds at the end of the season. I have noticed that there home goods department does NOT have the best selection.


Marshalls
This store is owned by the same company as home goods and TJ Maxx. This is a still very nice, and even more affordable version of TJ Maxx. This is personally my favorite store for clothes. Most of the brands are very well made, but you still walking away with a Nine West Dress for $20.00. They have a good selection of Home goods and accessories, but they are priced a little higher than other stores below mainly because they are nicer brands. They have a very organized shoe department, and overall this is your best bet for a store that has a good selection of clothing and home goods in the same place.

Ross
I'll cut to the chase on this one. Ross has the best selection and the best prices for accessories and home goods. They are nice quality, and I ALWAYS go here first for purses and shoes. In my experience, the adult clothing is NOT the best quality I will say that they do have a good selection of clothes for kids and teenagers who will be growing out of their clothes anyway. For adults however, if you want your clothes to last a long time, I would go to Marshall's instead. This store can be very disorganized at times and frustrating to shop in, but most of the time you walk away with such a sweet deal (a pair of really nice dress shoes for $15.00), and suddenly it was all worth it.

Tuesday Morning
This is store for knick knacks. Personally, I don't shop here much unless I need something that is not very "mainstream" in the above stores. (Ex: a portable dog house). If you need something like monogrammed napkins or a bird bath, this the the perfect place. The prices are moderate and sometimes more than I want to pay, but they are still much cheaper than full price, and it is honestly your best bet if you are looking for a strange item. As you have probably gathered, it is somewhat of a random store, but most of their merchandise is pretty nice, and I will say they have lots of "fun" things. Note: The isles are close together and most of the time they are pretty small, so a double-wide stroller is a no-go.

Big Lots
Big Lots is a good place if you need more than one of an item. Most of the places above won't have household goods in bulk or look like a normal store in that there is often only one or two of everything. Big lots almost looks like a glorified dollar general. They do carry furniture, accessories, household items, and even some groceries. There is a little bit of everything.It a way, it reminds me of a nicer, personal-sized, Wall-Mart.

How to bargain hunt like a pro: Part One-The Basics

INTRODUCTION

I'm just gonna say it. I am relatively good at finding clothing and household items at really good prices. I pride myself on getting very nice quality items for a fraction of the price. A lot of my close friends and family ask me how to do this, and though I will say there are some things that help, part of being good at this is that I simply like shopping. If you walk into a thrift store and start sweating as you look out into the abyss of piles and racks, can't stand the thought of walking into a Ross, or just hate shopping altogether, bargain shopping might not be for you. Don't get me wrong. I have converted many who were wary of trying it once they realized how easy it is and that they could actually get the same $200 Guess purse their friend was carrying for $30. To all you people who always find themselves asking..how did you get THAT for THAT price???...you have come to the right place.

NOTE (about the advice in the following blog): I am not one of those crazy shopping ladies who show up 3 hours early for specials or tear through sales throwing everything in their cart that they can find. Nor do I spend all my free time looking for deals. These concepts are things you can apply without really changing that much except how you shop when you do go shopping. I do not advocate cheating, swindling, or conning people out of their money. Like any good advice, it can be misused and abused. I recently went to a church garage sale where they had a deal where you could get a plastic grocery bag of clothes for a dollar. Great deal right?! There were some people stuffing the bag so full, they could barely close it and when volunteers offered them another bag, refused it and kept cramming in more clothes. Seriously...over ONE dollar? There is a fine line between being a smart bargain shopper and being a greedy, selfish, and somewhat crazy abuser of bargain hunting principles. Please...don't be one of THOSE people. God gave us a conscience for a reason, and he did not intend us to throw it out the window just because we see a clearance sign.

THE BASICS

The one thing I cannot stress highly enough as a must is to always buy high quality items. If you take nothing nothing else away from this post, I hope you will practice this habit. Unless your need is something that is rarely or never made in high-quality or is purposefully not made to last,it is always important to ONLY buy high quality for two reasons:

1. If is is made cheaply, it probably will not last you will probably end up thinking "Why did I buy this? It's a piece of junk. You can't get nice stuff bargain shopping. I'm not getting "thrifty" next time. I'd rather pay a little more and have something that actually lasts...ugh."

This is a very normal reaction when something that is not made well breaks, but buying something that is not made to last is setting yourself up for failure. You will end up taking it out on your "thrifty" shopping experience and generalize that all places like that only carry junk, when in fact it is your fault for accidentally picking out something that was bound to fail you.

If you shop my way, you will be able to buy a pier-one quality item for the price of a sale item at wal-mart. You choose. which will last longer? Sound good? Read on.

2. Buying high quality items (clothing in particular) will not only last much, much longer, but your experience using it will be more enjoyable. For example, high quality clothing often times fits better, washes better, and doesn't shrink drastically or pill easily. With the exception of that one pair of shoes from Payless that you have had since 10th grade, most of the time, high quality items always last longer, and will serve you right from day one until you have used them into the ground. That is why buying them used is no big deal because..say it with me...they were made to last. Okay, now that we have established that they are made to last, that is not to say they are indestructible. The way we treat our things has a great deal to do with how long they last regardless of the quality, but say a cheap backpack from walmart will last 4 years if treated well, a backpack from REI will last 44 years if it is treated well. So you buy the REI backback used in year 4... 40 years to go.

MYTH: All high quality clothes are high maintenance. REALITY: The maintenance of any clothing regardless of how well it is made completely depends on the material it is made of. Think about sheets for an example. You can buy 100 count or 600 count. They both go in the washing machine. They both go in the dryer. There is a HUGE difference in how they feel. One is a little scratchy but fine. The other feels like butter in your hands. If you could buy 600 count sheets for the price of new 100 count sheets would you? Okay. Same concept with clothing. I will say that there are more clothes that require dry-cleaning that are considered "nice" simply because they are made with more expensive material. You can easily avoid clothes that are high maintenance by looking at the wash instructions. Like me, at first when you realize you can afford clothes that are really really nice, it is tempting to buy dry clean only clothes and think "oh, it won't be that bad". Unless you want to dryel yourself to death,(I do this some, but personally it gets old after awhile) I would not suggest buying dry-clean only for things you wear on a regular basis, unless you don't mind paying the bill for the cleaners. You CAN buy low costing, high quality, LOW maintenance clothes.

I will start with how to find new bargain items since most people would rather have something new. I will start with the easiest things and move my way down to the things that even regular bargain shoppers may not have thought about before.

1. Best time of year to buy- the absolute best time is to shop when the seasons are changing. All the previous season goes on sale to make room for the new stuff. However, shopping right when things go on sale is not always the best idea. Say they put the items at 40% off at first, but if you wait another month, they goes to 75% off just so they can get rid of them. This applies to fancy stores just as it applies to Target.


2. Go STRAIGHT to the clearance section- Don't be afraid to walk into The Loft or Guess just because the prices of the items at the front are three time what you want to pay. It's all about the back of the store. When I walk into a store, I immediately walk to the back. Looking at all the new and full price stuff at the front depresses me because I know you don't want to pay that much, and will either end up buying something for more than I wanted to spend, or I leave before I even make it to the back. Go straight to the back, and it will cut down on your time, stress level, and credit card bill. EXCEPTION: The clearance/sale rack might not ALWAYS be at the back depending on the kind of store. For most clothing stores it is at the back. Because they want you to buy the full price clothing, they don't parade cheaper items at the front, or everyone would just buy sale stuff. Don't be afraid to ask where the clearance section is- some stores have clearance items separated by section, and some just throw it all together. If it's not at the back, its somewhere even more cleverly hidden.

TRAP #1- Sale vs. Clearance- Something that says "sale" does not mean its automatically a good deal and therefore you should buy it. Most of the time stores will actually put their "sale" items at the front, giving you the false sense that you are getting a steal. Clearance is something totally different than sale. Clearance means they NEED to get rid of it and will be priced accordingly. A sale is a calculated marketing strategy to make you buy more. Look at the full price, calculate how much you will be getting off, and if's it not at least 50%, walk away. You can do better than that. I honestly don't usually buy things unless they are at least 70% off or more.

WATCH OUT FOR: Some stores will go as far as to label a section clearance and mark down the items a whole 10%. That or they will "accidentally" mix in full price items or have them right next to the clearance so you can't tell what is what. Most of the time this is on purpose to get you to..say it with me...buy more. Ask if you are not sure before you fall in love with that sweater, or you will end up:
a) buying it for full price because you tried it on first, and THEN found out it was actually $69.99 and not 75% off. (which is EXACTLY what they hope you will do.
or
b) getting depressed or mad that you were tricked, and decide never to go to that stupid, sneaky, overpriced store ever again. You have to outsmart THEM.
The solution: ASK FIRST if you are not totally sure.




TIP TO TRY:

If something you want to purchase is a bit damaged:

Realize that sometimes (at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for example) there will be a sticker on it describing what is wrong with it and that is why it is priced down. In this case it is obvious they know about the damage, so the following tip is irrelevant. Otherwise:

If there is no sticker acknowledging the damage, politely pointing out the damage to the cashier will probably get you one of three results:
1."I'm sorry, we have an "as is" policy on clearance items"
2."We can take and extra ___% off but it will be non-returnable. Is that okay?"
3."Umm...That's why its on clearance. So do you want it or not?"

4 times out of 5 I get the 2nd answer and end up with a clearance item that is now an extra 20% off. Sweet!

How NOT to try this: Voice tone when doing this is EVERYTHING. As with pretty much every one of my tips to try, being nice goes a long way. The moment you talk to someone like you deserve something is the moment that person will react the opposite way you want them to. Gently put the ball in their court, and you will be surprised at how generous people can be. This is largely due to the fact that so many people demand things, and the fact that you are actually asking...nicely, makes them want to help you out. This will not always work and sometimes you will get response 1 or even 3. Remember, it is already on sale, so regardless of how they answer you, you are not entitled to a lower price, so please don't be one of THOSE people and get an attitude with the poor cashier who's manager probably told them they couldn't give extra off for clearance items. By the way...this concept of being nice to people...yeah it's a pretty old trick.