Bargain Quest

I’ll be upfront - I don’t like Kmarts. They overwhelmingly seem messy and unpleasant (although still a slight step above Dollar Generals). Until recently, my last Kmart experience was highlighted by a hairy, shirtless, middle-aged man in a kilt wandering the sidewalk with a shopping cart. That was when I decided there was really no reason I needed to go there.

But I have changed my mind, at least temporarily. The bargain beauty of Kmart apparently stems from the very chaos that makes me resent it - Kmart doesn’t or can’t keep up with its clearance items. With grunt work, bargain hunters can uncover steeply discounted clearance items still sitting unmarked on the regular shelves.

I wouldn’t have known this, but yet another internet resource clued me with a list of items, mostly nationwide, that ring up at 80 to 90% off in stores. I’ve found lots of cheap toys and larger baby items to resell or donate. Unfortunately, I’m not going to share where I found the info, because I don’t have permission from the group organizers to publicize it and they prefer to keep it within a specific circle.

But I can explain the basic process - trial and error.

Start with anything that has a yellow clearance tag on it. Often the tagged price is far above what the actual price has been reduced to. You can find the actual price by scanning the UPC at one of the price scanners stationed around the store. If it rings “Check Shelf Price,” it’s on final clearance, but it’s up to the store to give you a price and the price might or might not be a good deal.

Next you have to expand your search - look for anything that looks like it has been there a long time, especially battered, one-of-a-kind boxes looking a little out of place. It might be a discontinued product on clearance. You won’t know until you check. Unfortunately, this involves a lot of scanning and dragging boxes around the store in carts. It’s really for bargain hunters with a lot of time and patience.

Finally, check bargain message boards around the Web for posts about specific finds that you can look for in your own store. Not all stores discount at the same time or same amount. Frankly, the dirtiest, messiest stores are the best place to start. They are the least likely to have moved clearance items out, and there are probably lots of bargain items hiding in random places. The rare neat Kmart holds less potential, through virtue of being up-to-date and organized.

So Kmart gets a reprieve with me, but only as long as the clearance deals last!