Smart Money has a feature article this month titled "Save 50% on Everything" and I'll be covering and commenting on the various sub-sections over the next few days. Today, they give us some ideas on how to save 50% on clothes. Here are the tips they offered that I like the most:
- Industry insiders say retailers often screw up on inventory because they tend to expect a repeat of last year's weather. If a freezing holiday stirred demand for coats and sweaters one year, for example, many stores will overstock their shelves the next fall and then be forced to discount like crazy when — surprise, surprise — the weather does something different. "It's a great way to get bargains," says Paul Walsh, senior VP at retail consultant Planalytics.
- The best way to milk your loyalty may be one of the easiest: Befriend the sales clerks.
- Two of the best sources for deep discounts on designer clothes are online. Bluefly.com recently offered 50% discounts on Ben Sherman dress shirts and 70% off Christian Dior sunglasses. Its European counterpart, Yoox.com, offers similarly swanky loot. Both offer free shipping on returns.
Here's my take on these:
1. We're always on the lookout for weather-related sales and specials. As I write this in mid-August, summer and back-to-school clothing is already on sale at deep discounts. We were in JC Penney this past weekend and they had tons of stuff for sale at 50-70% off. Not only could we get stuff for next summer, but there's still plenty of summer left this year -- even in Michigan. Yeah, you have to paw through a lot of duds to get to the good stuff, but if you like a treasure hunt, the "gold" is there to be found.
2. I have a buddy at the local bike shop. He lets me know about the sales and special deals that others find out about later. And since he's the son of the owner, he can give me a discount on a regular purchases as well. It works out for him as I drive by another bike shop to go to his and I've sent him tons of business, not to mention that he makes good money off me -- the margins on bike shop merchandise are huge!
3. That said, I always shop the online bike retailers as well (for clothing and other accessories). Yes, it's a pain if you have to return something (and there's no way to try it on in advance), but if you shop their end-of-season and closeout sections, you can save a ton. I just saved 60% on a top-flight bike jacket, something I wouldn't have purchased without the discount.
Here are two other ways that I have found save a lot of money on clothing:
1. Outlet stores. Not the kind that cluster together in "Outlet Malls" - which are often just duplicates of their in-mall stores which only marginally lower prices. I'm talking about the true outlet stores. I went to the GAP outlet in Hebron, KY with my wife on Sunday, and I bought a Banana Republic dress shirt with a $59.99 price tag for $12.99 and a pair of GAP khakis that retail for $40 cost me only $6.99... of course, you have to carefully check each piece of clothing for defects, but there are gems in the bunch.
2. Costco. All of their clothing is typically more than 50% cheaper than retail prices. I am a particular fan of the Kirkland Select dress shirts. They cost $14.99, but rival the major brand $60 dress shirts in quality of construction. Costco is also a great place to buy jeans for very low prices.
Posted by: GHoosdum | August 22, 2006 at 11:27 AM