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May 2nd, 2007

All Sales Are Final

I think it is safe to say that college and small budget go hand-in-hand. Of course, this varies greatly from state to state and school to school, but the generality is widely accepted and holds truth.

In light of the budget minded college student, and everyone else because we all know people like to save money, I have compiled a list of the best places and times to save money. And yes, 99% of this list deals with clothing and the 1% is simply a tag along for the stores that carry other goods.

First and foremost, time. Time is always something to think about when you are looking for a sale or even a clearance. Although time of day can sometimes come into play, time of day is left to the department stores. Everywhere else, and thee stores as well, you have to think season. End of the season sales are more often than not the largest discounted sales you can find. What do you have to know to get the most out of the sale? The higher fashion cities go on sale the earliest and every city there after follows suit. This means when the Saks Fifth Avenue has places all their Spring/Summer lines on sale in early July, Denver’s Saks Fifth Avenue might not begin until mid-August.

Second, the larger the store the larger the sale. Don’t rely on your favorite boutique store for a 75% off clearance rack, it just isn’t practical. These small proprietorships are not to keen on cutting prices so drastically as the money comes from their own pockets. Instead, leave it to the Saks, Macy*s, Bloomindales, and Neiman Marcus’ of the world. These are the stores when you can find your Dolce & Gabbana Suit for under $400 (if the retail originated at $2,000) or your authentic Louis Vuitton handbag for less than $200 (please note: authentic).

Third, go worldwide. I realize there is nothing like trying on the clothes you want to purchase or simply holding a garment in your, but sometimes price trumps all. YOOX, Bluefly, eLuxury, Diabro, Urban Outfitters, and hundreds and hundreds of other websites all make shopping online a breeze. The best part, most of these do so outside of the country. Where the best clothing designs are found.

Lastly, maybe the fact that online stores make it easy to get your hands on foreign designs is not the best part. Perhaps the best part of these stores are their sales. Online websites have the Best Deals Around. Take, for example, YOOX. A site that runs out of Italy, and has offices in the US, receives past season clothing for inexpensive prices, places it on sale several times, and before you know it you have $480 Christian Dior belt for under a $100.00. If that doesn’t suit your needs, how about a Diesel t-shirt for under $30, that’s a price competitive to GAP. On top of all of this, online stores usually (always) have sale section. You would be hard pressed to find an online store that is without a 60% Sale staring at you in bold, red letting.

All in all, take my advice; never pay full price. But if you feel you have to, pay the full price at a department store or online as you will still be saving over other stores.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Rags to Riches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.