KC-Traderbear

Well, if Christmas went to 75% off here in KC today then I totally missed out. We had to celebrate Christmas with our kiddos here at home since we were trapped in the frozen tundra for a week over Christmas. So, this morning was our "Christmas" morning. I'm just now digging out of toys. This is the earliest I've ever heard of 75% off markdowns happening. THAT would be a nice trend though. Hope everyone who made it out hit the jackpot with lots of good deals!

My husband just bought that tonight at Coscto. Very nice, but it is loud for a brief time right before it brews the cup. It's great for him though because he is the only coffee drinker in our house.

WOW, your parents have their own Target!? tee hee Now, wouldn't that be fun?! "Hey mom, don't open the doors for anyone til I get there and go through the clearance myself!!"

I got Butterscotch for 1/2 price at Target last year-- $125?? I think... I was kind of surprised to see him back out again this year. I haven't seen him on any clearance aisles though, but he is pretty big, so maybe they are keeping him hidden in the back. He's pretty darn cute (or SHE as my daughters insist). We gave it to my daughter for her 4th b-day last year. I wouldn't say he sees a lot of action though. Mostly he sits there quietly. Occasionally one of my kiddos jumps on his back. Kind of just a space hog though :>( Maybe I need to buy that cute little S'mores Furreal pony, so Butterscotch has a friend! LOL:rolleyes:

That is really interesting. I have never been through a holiday markdown that wasn't done first thing in the morning when I got there. I always just figured they programed everything in the system during the overnight hours. It might drive me crazy if they did it randomly throughout the day. At least when I go in first thing and it's not done, I always know (around here anyway) that it isn't going to be done THAT day.

I don't know what to expect with toys this year. If they didn't go to 50% this week, then it seems to me that there might just be another jump straight from 30-75%. Unless they decide to do marks next week? There are so many toys left at the stores I shop. I don't know that I've ever seen so many toys stacked up on the very top shelves (similar to right before Black Friday). I don't know why Target wouldn't want to try to do intermediate marks to 50%. I also saw a few things marked to 50%, but not many at all. Most stuff was 30%. WHO KNOWS?? One year there was a store near me that BOXED it all up and shipped it out after 50% (I don't know where "out" was). I was there when they were boxing it up and the girls that were boxing it couldn't believe it either. Hope THAT doesn't happen again.

They may; they may not know; or they may say "YA!"-- when it's really not. I have hit holiday clearance days (75% and 90%) when the signs weren't up yet and nobody was shopping the aisle at all. The only reason I knew it was marked down further is because I scanned it. So, I guess I always scan stuff if I know the holiday aisle is getting close to another drop in price. Christmas is by far the wildest of the clearance though, so I would imagine that most in the store will know in the morning if it is down to 75%. Again, I personally would never count on what one of the Target associates tell me. I don't bother asking or calling anyone. I just hope that the day I THINK it's going down is in fact the right day! Sometimes I hit it; sometimes I'm too early; and sometimes I miss it ... Difficult for those who have to drive a bit, but I have lots of Targets around me, so I usually just head out when I know it's getting close.

I'd be very careful of listening to what the workers say. I have never had a worker tell me the correct date on any markdowns... mostly because I honestly don't think they know. I believe some get a little bit of a kick out of making customers THINK they know. It could happen on Sunday. The stores I have been to have an awful lot of stuff and Target's 4th quarter wasn't great. Maybe they will mark down holiday a little earlier than usual, but like I said in another post. New Year's Eve is the earliest I've ever seen it go to 75%. Many stores aren't until Jan. 1. I just mean if you are driving any distance, be careful of listening to the workers. They really don't have any more information than we do (I don't think anyway.)

That's interesting... our signs didn't say anything about batteries excluded. It just says all green and orange dots. (The batteries have green dots.) That would explain why they aren't ringing up right! Although the cashiers don't even blink when I say they are 75% off. And they are ringing up full price of $1 too!

It doesn't matter. I've bought holiday stuff at full price; found it on sale for 75% off; and returned the full priced item during the 75% off sale. They give me back what I paid. I don't buy too much holiday stuff until it gets to 75% off, so it's rare that I would buy something at 50% off and return it after it goes to 75%. But, it has happened... just not that often cause most of what I buy I just wait until 75% off.

They don't enforce it around here either. I've never had trouble returning holiday merchandise and getting all my money back no matter when I return it.

It's really anyone's guess. It seems like Target stores have sort of gone to individualized schedules on holiday markdowns (at least somewhat). Saturday seems a bit early to me though. The earliest I have seen Christmas decorations go to 75% has been New Year's Eve (at least around here). Ya never know though. I found 25 cent batteries today. Very poorly marked (dollar spot) and the 2 stores that had them only had the signs up... they had to manually change the price in the registers. Kind of strange. They may not be the best quality batteries around, but when you're feeding kids' toys, WHO CARES! I got lucky at one store and found ziploc quart bags with the winter scene on them. After using lots of ziploc coupons, they became pretty cheap. I didn't take them all either. So if you shop the OP Super T on 119th, they are in the regular ziploc aisle, but are ringing up 1/2 price. They had a lot, but I only took what I needed. The scene on the front isn't christmasy at all... more "wintery". Animals sledding and skating (I think). I went to 3 stores today and I found there to be a lot of toys left. Of course, they haven't gone to 50% yet, so that may clear a bunch out. ... and if you are an expired coupon user... --(please don't yell at me if you aren't) --the toy catalog coupons worked for me today and in conjunction with the 30% off price made some of them pretty cheap. (Also, the Hasbro coupon worked for me on Littlest Pet Shops!) HOWEVER, the Fisher Price Art Desk thingy comes up on the registers as "Coupon Expired!" I thought that was peculiar. The others did not say that and they all came from the same catalog. Now, why doesn't Target program that little ditty into ALL their coupons if they don't like/intend to honor expireds?? Curious... Just some tidbits for anyone who cares!! :>) Happy shopping everybody.

I think that sometimes when there is a holiday thrown into the week, the markdown team can be off by a day or two. I didn't get to Target today, but I'm going tomorrow and hoping that the toy markdowns will be done Thursday this week instead of Wednesday (because of the Christmas holiday). I bet that some stores won't even get to the markdowns until Friday. But, toys really can vary (in my opinion) and maybe some stores won't even go to 50% and either go next week or go straight to 75% mid January.

The 2 Costcos around me were marking toys down today... 1. Littlest Pet Shop Round and Round Pet Town $19.97 2. Pixel Chix 2 pack $5.97 3. Barbie Island Princess Playset $19.97 (with Princess Rosella included) 4. Polly Pocket Race to the Mall $19.97 (he was just changing the sign from $36.xx) All these things were bonus packs and included additional pieces that make it hard to comparison shop, but for these particular items, I'm pretty sure I got a decent deal. My kiddos wanted that Polly Pocket Race to the Mall set, but I wasn't going to pay upwards of $40 for it at TRUS. I was happy with it at 20 bucks. If I find it cheaper somewhere after Christmas, I can always return it to Costco. I'm know that every store carries different things, and most likely has very different markdown schedules, but if there was a particular toy that you were watching, you might check to see if it went a bit cheaper this week.

Ohhhh we are getting closer to the after Christmas mayhem! It won't be too much longer. I've got my babysitters already lined up! Now, hopefully none of my kiddos get sick and put a crimp in my shopping plans!

Here is what happened LAST year (at least in our area -- KC): 2 stores went to 75% off (Christmas Decorations) on Dec. 31... The other 2 I shopped went to 75% off on Jan. 1 (I think MOST went on the 1st). All stores went to 90% off Christmas stuff on Jan. 6. The toys kind of varied during the 50% off sale, but if many of them went to 30% off this past week around here, so I think that would put them to 50% off a day or 2 after Christmas because last year all the toys went to 75% off on Jan. 10 around here. I never thought that I would find someplace that outdid Target on their toy clearance, but I have been having a ball the past 2 weeks on the Amazon website. They are throwing out some WILD deals. Barbie Island Princess Magical Castle for $50 (reg. $150); Barbie My Size Throne for $27 (reg. $89.99); Leap Frog items for 70% off; Little Pony stuff for 70% off. It has been so much fun. I hate to promote another forum, but there are SEVEN threads to the Amazon forum where people post what they are finding. I really don't know that I will need much from the Target toy clearance. The two best parts, FREE SHIPPING on MOST EVERYTHING and THIS IS ALL HAPPENING BEFORE X-MAS. It blows my mind.

Does anyone know if the toy coupons from the holiday catalog mailed back in November were put out on a generator somewhere? Or, did anyone happen to save some of them to their desktop??

I stumbled across a whole endcap in electronics with all the Ninetendo and Wii games that were part of the two day sale over Thanksgiving. Ninetendo games for $9.99 and Wii games for $19.99. Not sure if the titles are great or not and I did see another Ninetendo display with games for $14.99, so maybe the $9.99 is no big deal, but there were quite a few games there. They were even displayed in the same red cardboard display and the yellow and white shelf stickers showed "2 day sale" with the prices I mentioned above. I don't know if they were just returns or back stock. This was the Super Target in OP on 119th.

They didn't put out the 10" DVD players here until Wednesday. I grabbed a couple and got my price adjustment just fine. I ended up at a Target on BF at 8 a.m. and they just had tons and tons of those players, but they were flying off the shelf. It's an incredible price for a 10" screen! They didn't have any of the Nintendo bundles out early though. I guess they were gone in minutes. They wouldn't price match my board games either. I guess it said in the ad "no price matches on the games." No big deal though cause they had them stacked to the ceiling, so I just rebought and will return the others.

Thanks!

Thanks for the info. I just ordered and used my coupon that I got in the mailer. So, according to what this thread says, that's it. I will not be able to go to the store and use this, right?

Has anyone seen the audiovox 10" portable DVD player OR the Ninetendo bundle that are part of the black friday ad? I still haven't seen them stocked at our Targets around here yet.

Just last year I bought 3 of the digital picture frames that they had featured on the front page of their black friday ad. I bought them on Tues or Wed (I think) right before black friday. I took the receipt in and had no problems getting an adjustment, but you have to go in during the day/time that the item is on sale. I've been looking for a couple of things that I'd like to get ahead of time, but I'm not finding any of them at my Target stores. I'm not sure when they stock the shelves with the black friday stuff (particularly electronics), but so far, they don't have the Nintendo bundle out OR the 10" portable DVD. Maybe this is the year that they will follow Walmart and not put some of their stuff out until black friday. I don't know. Anything could happen I suppose. Maybe they have a new policy against price adjustments since last year. Maybe (like so many "policies") it depends on the individual store. All our stores around here are super nice about coupons/ returns, etc. I haven't come across some of the difficulties that many on this forum speak about. But, it could happen to me any day I'm sure!

That store may have already salvaged their Halloween. Generally holiday clearance only stays at 90% off for a couple of days and then it is taken out of the system (called salvaged). Although I figured TODAY would be the first day of "salvaged" Halloween since most of our stores put stuff at 90% on Wednesday. Any of the Halloween goodies you find after it goes salvage will just scan "item not found." You may be able to sweet talk the cashier into a price that you want, but I don't believe they HAVE to sell it to you after it goes salvage, and some stores absolutely won't sell stuff that has been salvaged. It's always worth a try to just take it to the register. Have a fair price in mind before you go. I usually just try for 75% off cause it's a bit more realistic that they will allow that price.

Target's Black Friday Ad is OUT! http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/BlackFridaySales/Store/Target Unless Target has changed how they stock things... usually you can go in a couple days ahead of Black Friday; buy what you want and then go back for a price adjustment at your leisure on Black Friday when it's not so busy. I think (but am not sure) that Walmart just keeps its Black Friday items in the back until the actual day, which can be a pain for those of us who have no interest in standing in lines at 4 a.m.