Sale, clearance or quit stock: which is best?

So you’d like to go bargain shopping for some fabulous cheap clothes — sales are great for that, right? Well… maybe.

In retail, there are three main types of ’sale’ and knowing the difference makes it much easier to find the best bargains.

All about sales

A sale is now a very regular event in a lot of stores. Department stores hold sales because they create a big buzz (and really boost the sales figures) for a relatively small discount. Typically, when the sale signs go up, most stock is marked down by only 10-20%, if it’s discounted at all.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t bother with sales, just that you should know what to look for. The things I buy at sales include:

• very specific items (i.e. not just any black top, this black top) that are likely to sell out before they make it to further rounds of markdowns
• premium designer jeans and accessories that are rarely discounted more than 20%
• items that are notoriously difficult to find, like unusual sizes

The general rule is that if you’re after something fairly generic, you won’t get the best deal in the sales. If you’re after something unusual and specific, better to buy it with a small markdown than miss out by holding out ’til later. (I’ve also heard that some stores will refund the difference if you buy something, then see it marked down shortly afterwards. I’ve never tried it myself though — anyone?)

What about store clearances and quit stock?

A clearance is held for different reasons to a sale. Whereas sales are often held to generate buzz and bring more customers in, a clearance is about getting rid of stock that will rapidly become ‘undesirable’ in the fickle world of retail. In a clearance, the markdowns are much bigger, but the selection is often much smaller.

Quit stock is the final stage of a clearance, where the retailer is willing to take a token amount (up to 95% off original RRP) to move the stock quickly. This is where the absolute best deals are, but you often have to pick through mountains of ugly, shop soiled junk to find them.

I’ll talk about clearances and quit stock together, since they’re two parts of the same process, i.e. making room on a shop floor for newer things.

Clearance and quit stock are great for finding beautiful designer items at super-cheap prices. This is where I impulse buy those stunning things that I didn’t know I needed ’til I saw them… and try to pick up top-quality basics for a big saving too.

The down side of clearances is that they take time and patience. There’s no guarantee there’ll be anything in your size, colour or style, so it’s a bad idea to go to them with a very specific purchase in mind. Personally, I know if I look for, say, ‘evening shoes’ or ‘pretty girlie tops’ I might get lucky. But if I’m specifically looking for a great white t-shirt, I know I’ll be disappointed.

The other problem is that, even if you have the time and patience to hunt through clearance stock, you still have to know where to find it. As I’ve mentioned before, not all stores do their clearance in-house (see halfway down my post on insider retail shopping tips). That means that you won’t find clearance racks in all stores at all times.

To give an example, here’s what Australia’s two biggest department stores do. (Most department stores around the world do something similar, so no matter where you are, the underlying rules are probably applicable.) At sale time, Myer has clearance stock in all their stores, up to 90% off. The few things that don’t sell this way seem to end up on Gray’s Online Auctions. By contrast, David Jones sends their clearance stock to their warehouse outlets in Sydney and the Gold Coast. Since they opened these stores, I’ve rarely seen a really deep discount on the floor of the ‘regular’ stores — but the warehouses are a fantastic source of bargains year-round.

So when you’re out looking for a great bargain, don’t be fooled into believing those prominent SALE signs mean cheap clothes. If you can hold out for a scruffy clearance rack — or head straight for the store’s warehouse outlet — you’ll find much better deals.

Disclaimer: I’ve never actually worked in retail, I just spent a lot of time shopping. If you’re a retail employee and something I’ve said sounds wrong, please correct me!