[USA] Target Clearance - Wal-Mart Soon?

[pharmjod]

don't get me all nostalgic for the good old days when you could find tons of LEGO clearance on 75% or greater, off. I've had some crazy finds in the past 12 years.

[etcknight]

don't get me all nostalgic for the good old days when you could find tons of LEGO clearance on 75% or greater, off. I've had some crazy finds in the past 12 years.

But, probably not so many "crazy finds" in the last year or two, right? Even though I've found some "crazy deals", my "happiest" find was a UCS X-wing for 50% off at TRU one year when they were closing. At that time, I never thought I'd buy a Lego set that expensive! Then came the UCS Millennium Falcon! Times really do change.

FYI, Venator and Y-wing sold out at 30% off at Murrieta Target. Corona Target and IE still 30% off as of tonight. Had some Space Police and tons of Bionicle. Endor and PoP still full price.

[legoloco]

I've seen some interesting changes to the way some Targets in the area are clearancing stuff this time around. I'm in Chicago and one Target did a very fast jump from 30% off one week to 50% off the next and sold off everything clearance in their Lego isle at that point. This Target usually waits 2 weeks at 30% off, sometimes 3 weeks.

And for the first time a different Target staggered the percent drop on Lego sets. So the cheaper sets that they had more of (hyenna bomber, alliance droid tank) were marked down from 30% to 50% while the more expensive sets (y-wing, endor, pirate tank) which they had less of (except for the pirate tank which they have a lot of) they left at 30% during that round of mark downs. Normally this Target would mark everything down across the board percentage wise if it was still in stock. I thought that was a little weird, makes sense to try to sell stuff for as much as you can get for it but they've never done it that way before.

[etcknight]

OC / Irvine, Tustin area Targets still 30% off.

[ILikePi]

My local Target sold out of their Temple of Doom and tank droid earlier this week. I was hoping they would go for 50% so I could actually afford it, but oh well, more money saved for Series 2 and Harry Potter! Hyperspeed Pursuit is still there, and I'm hoping it'll go for 50% off later on (preferably Thursday).

[doodlebird]

can anyone else confirm the 7598 Pizza Planet Delivery Truck at Target (in store only) for $25? that's 37.5% off!

i saw it there (SW austin, TX) today, but i've been in a few other targets recently, and hadn't seen that price anywhere else.

[deco_droid]

local targets here still holding at 30% off...





-- "this isn't really a signature, but it sure looks like one..."

[etcknight]

can anyone else confirm the 7598 Pizza Planet Delivery Truck at Target (in store only) for $25? that's 37.5% off!

i saw it there (SW austin, TX) today, but i've been in a few other targets recently, and hadn't seen that price anywhere else.

Haven't been checking the Toy Story sets . . . will have to start now. PoP 30% off at some Targets, but full price at others. Haven't been able to find any SW Pirate Tanks anywhere! Found a stash of 30% Y-wings today - gonna wait until 50% and see if any left.

[monophoton]

Phoenix area Targets are WIPED OUT. I couldn't believe it. Did however manage to find a few Toy Story 3 Army Men packs at 50% off, but man, not a sniff of any Star Wars. Only other clearance left were Ben 10 and a couple of the large ship from the Space Police line at 30% off.

[Dr. Cart]

All 5 Targets in Richmond, VA area are Cleaned out!
No SW, no PM, no POP, no SP, nada. They must be making room for A LOT of Cad Bane Speeders *grin*.

Interestingly, the same Ben 10 display with the same number of sets is still there since release in Jan despite the 30% clearance.

[JamesBenjamin]

Does anyone know how Wal-Mart does their clearances? I saw this today:



Those stickers were only on PoP sets and the one space police set they had in stock (Galactic Enforcer? The $100 one). While the prices are at "regular" prices, they have a date in the red part, which makes me think they'll mark them down every week or two, since these red/white stickers are usually their clearance ones.

So maybe PoP is going on clearance at walmart soon? Is anyone familiar with their clearance policy/markdown schedule?

(full size pic is at the same location, take the "s" out of the filename)

[pharmjod]

every week or so is incredibly optimistic. from my experience (and this is just me) most wal mart stores can go weeks or even months without marking down sets. when i have asked in the past, they always tell me that they wait for markdown's from corporate. this is just speculation and someone here can please correct me, but i think in actuality individual stores can determine markdowns from a corporate schedule, its just that most stores don't actually check the corporate schedule. i know at target an item can be one price and if you find an associate with a gun and ask if it is due a markdown, if they are willing they can scan the item and tell you yes or no and in that instant it will get marked down. i can't help but think it works the same way or similarly at wal mart. the biggest difference i see is that wal mart employees seem much lazier than target employees. thats just my $0.02. in any case, i wouldn't hold your breath on mark downs. they come and go with no apparent pattern that i can discern at wal mart.

[calvinwashere2]

I've seen some interesting changes to the way some Targets in the area are clearancing stuff this time around. I'm in Chicago and one Target did a very fast jump from 30% off one week to 50% off the next and sold off everything clearance in their Lego isle at that point. This Target usually waits 2 weeks at 30% off, sometimes 3 weeks.

And for the first time a different Target staggered the percent drop on Lego sets. So the cheaper sets that they had more of (hyenna bomber, alliance droid tank) were marked down from 30% to 50% while the more expensive sets (y-wing, endor, pirate tank) which they had less of (except for the pirate tank which they have a lot of) they left at 30% during that round of mark downs. Normally this Target would mark everything down across the board percentage wise if it was still in stock. I thought that was a little weird, makes sense to try to sell stuff for as much as you can get for it but they've never done it that way before.

That just means they're getting smarter (read: greedier) about how they mark down Lego sets since they are starting to see how popular it's become recently. I was a Tower of Doom marked down 30% and was going to go back when it went down further and it was gone, gone, gone when it was clearanced further.

[ufjason]

I've seen some interesting changes to the way some Targets in the area are clearancing stuff this time around. I'm in Chicago and one Target did a very fast jump from 30% off one week to 50% off the next and sold off everything clearance in their Lego isle at that point. This Target usually waits 2 weeks at 30% off, sometimes 3 weeks.

And for the first time a different Target staggered the percent drop on Lego sets. So the cheaper sets that they had more of (hyenna bomber, alliance droid tank) were marked down from 30% to 50% while the more expensive sets (y-wing, endor, pirate tank) which they had less of (except for the pirate tank which they have a lot of) they left at 30% during that round of mark downs. Normally this Target would mark everything down across the board percentage wise if it was still in stock. I thought that was a little weird, makes sense to try to sell stuff for as much as you can get for it but they've never done it that way before.

That just means they're getting smarter (read: greedier) about how they mark down Lego sets since they are starting to see how popular it's become recently. I was a Tower of Doom marked down 30% and was going to go back when it went down further and it was gone, gone, gone when it was clearanced further.

Greedier, really? I'm sure Target has devised an insidious plot, watching the popularity of Lego under a microscope apart from every other product in their store and changing which sets they mark down on clearance to eek that last ounce of profit. Markdowns schedules have a little to do with time and pending resets as well as the quantity of a given item. If a store has a lot of stock to move before a reset, they'll most likely be more aggressive with markdowns and move them from 30-50-75% much faster than normal. If they have just one of a set left, it's most likely not going to go past 50%. You seem angry that it you didn't get a temple of doom you passed up at 30% while someone else is probably enjoying it right now. They thought 30% off was a good price or they got it right after it dropped to 50%.

Target typically clearances items nationwide once the item goes NCF (non carry forward). They don't necessarily mark down items on the same schedule so you'll always have people finding items at 30% one place and 50% at another. Some stores will hit a low of 75% or even 90% while others never go lower than 50%. Comparatively, Walmart has so much space in their stores and poor merchandising management that they probably don't make a point of being aggressive with clearance. It's up to a store's management and sometimes they're on top of it and other times they're not.

[Mofo Jones]

Picked up a Venator for 50% off today at my local Target. I wrecked somebody's stashing job by finding it on the top shelf behind the ARC-170s.

[calvinwashere2]

I've seen some interesting changes to the way some Targets in the area are clearancing stuff this time around. I'm in Chicago and one Target did a very fast jump from 30% off one week to 50% off the next and sold off everything clearance in their Lego isle at that point. This Target usually waits 2 weeks at 30% off, sometimes 3 weeks.

And for the first time a different Target staggered the percent drop on Lego sets. So the cheaper sets that they had more of (hyenna bomber, alliance droid tank) were marked down from 30% to 50% while the more expensive sets (y-wing, endor, pirate tank) which they had less of (except for the pirate tank which they have a lot of) they left at 30% during that round of mark downs. Normally this Target would mark everything down across the board percentage wise if it was still in stock. I thought that was a little weird, makes sense to try to sell stuff for as much as you can get for it but they've never done it that way before.

That just means they're getting smarter (read: greedier) about how they mark down Lego sets since they are starting to see how popular it's become recently. I was a Tower of Doom marked down 30% and was going to go back when it went down further and it was gone, gone, gone when it was clearanced further.

Greedier, really? I'm sure Target has devised an insidious plot, watching the popularity of Lego under a microscope apart from every other product in their store and changing which sets they mark down on clearance to eek that last ounce of profit. Markdowns schedules have a little to do with time and pending resets as well as the quantity of a given item. If a store has a lot of stock to move before a reset, they'll most likely be more aggressive with markdowns and move them from 30-50-75% much faster than normal. If they have just one of a set left, it's most likely not going to go past 50%. You seem angry that it you didn't get a temple of doom you passed up at 30% while someone else is probably enjoying it right now. They thought 30% off was a good price or they got it right after it dropped to 50%.

Target typically clearances items nationwide once the item goes NCF (non carry forward). They don't necessarily mark down items on the same schedule so you'll always have people finding items at 30% one place and 50% at another. Some stores will hit a low of 75% or even 90% while others never go lower than 50%. Comparatively, Walmart has so much space in their stores and poor merchandising management that they probably don't make a point of being aggressive with clearance. It's up to a store's management and sometimes they're on top of it and other times they're not.

Angry, no actullay, not at all...good on whoever got the better deal. I'm not sure where you got that, it's a bit of a projection there. I'm not saying someone sits there to change the price on one item, there are data mining software that tells big corporations how to price items based on a variety of factors (some of which you mentioned). I did notice the varying price at diff. Targets.

[etcknight]

Greedier, really? I'm sure Target has devised an insidious plot, watching the popularity of Lego under a microscope apart from every other product in their store and changing which sets they mark down on clearance to eek that last ounce of profit. Markdowns schedules have a little to do with time and pending resets as well as the quantity of a given item. If a store has a lot of stock to move before a reset, they'll most likely be more aggressive with markdowns and move them from 30-50-75% much faster than normal. If they have just one of a set left, it's most likely not going to go past 50%. You seem angry that it you didn't get a temple of doom you passed up at 30% while someone else is probably enjoying it right now. They thought 30% off was a good price or they got it right after it dropped to 50%.

Target typically clearances items nationwide once the item goes NCF (non carry forward). They don't necessarily mark down items on the same schedule so you'll always have people finding items at 30% one place and 50% at another. Some stores will hit a low of 75% or even 90% while others never go lower than 50%. Comparatively, Walmart has so much space in their stores and poor merchandising management that they probably don't make a point of being aggressive with clearance. It's up to a store's management and sometimes they're on top of it and other times they're not.

Well, I'm not sure about greedier - but something different is definitely happening at the Targets near me . . .

I heard that clearance toys had hit 75% clearance - so I've been religiously checking my local Targets to see when they would switch from 30% off to 75% off. Last year, some of the local Targets when straight from 30% to 75% off. However, something interesting has happened this time. Every other toy item, except Lego, went directly from 30% off to 75% off this week. Ben10 Legos also went to 75% off. However, all other clearanced Legos (Star Wars, PoP, Space Police, etc) only went from 30% off to 50% off. So there was only a "selective" change in the clearance discount? I don't know about "greedier", but Target is taking notice that Legos have gained popularity.

Also, YMMV, but I didn't find any local Targets that had any Battle of Endor, Toy Story, Tri-Droid, or Hyena Bombers on clearance. PoP was hit-or-miss. I only found one of five Targets that had PoP on clearance. The rest were still full price. I finally gave in today and purchase some Y-wing and a Venator at 50% off. I figured they wouldn't last until 75% off. Ahh, the good ole' days.

[Gooker1]

How many Venators were there? I couldn't find any up here in LA. Wanna help a boardie out?

[Mofo Jones]

How many Venators were there? I couldn't find any up here in LA. Wanna help a boardie out?

If you're asking me, there was only one. Sorry I can't help you out more than this: I did a stock check around my town and they were only in Fairfield, Walnut Creek and Pinole. I live very close to Fairfield so that was easy to check. A few days ago, Walnut Creek had 0 and Pinole had 1, still at 30% off. On Target's website, it said "Limited Availability" for those stores that had 1-2 left. On Friday, after I picked up the one in Fairfield, I called Pinole and they'd sold the one already. I don't know if you can do a stock check around your area. DPCI on the set is 204-00-0220.

[Mandalorian Candidat]

My local Targets (so. WI) each did something different. One had about 20 Corporate Alliance Tanks and put those on clearance two weeks before the other sets for 30%. Another had a couple of Hyena Bombers that appear to have gone straight to 50% off. Another had the Hyenas out of their scanner system. A fourth had everything at 30% off while the other three in the vicinity are at 50%. Back in Jan., one went down to 75% for IJ Lego but another went from 50% to 'not in system.'

Regardless, I luuuuv me some Target clearances. I haven't found much at 75% for awhile, but I did get a Y-Wing and CA Tank Droid for 50% last night. WMs clearances are just hell. They toss all the old stuff on back shelves and forget them for a million years. No lie - Remember that movie Sahara that came out 4-5 years ago. There is a Sahara action figure still on active clearance at my WM. What's next, K-Tel records?