Shopping..

Looking for great bargains on your favorite clothing and summer seasonal items?  Check out the end of summer close-outs at your local retail stores and malls.  Great deals can be found on many items from seasonal merchandise in the gardening center to incredible prices on clothing.  All you need to do is spend a little time checking out the sale racks and be willing to dig through an occasional shopping cart filled with discontinued summer items.

One favorite place for parents to shop is their local retail super store at the end of the summer.  The best time to hit the sales is mid-August when stores are starting to stock their fall clothing lines.  You can purchase clothing items that are one or two sizes larger than the ones your children are wearing now.  The prices on these clearance-clothing items are usually 40-50 percent less than what you would normally pay.  Good items to buy are jeans, shorts and t-shirts, summer jackets and swimsuits.  Avoid trendy items that may not be in style next year or shoes for children since it is hard to predict how fast their feet will grow.

The gardening department is another great place to find summer close out bargains.  High priced items such as outdoor furniture, lawn mowers, water fountains, lily ponds and wheelbarrows are usually sold at cost at the end of the summer.  The stores don’t want to put these items in storage for the winter so great bargains can usually be found in this department.  If you want to get a head start on next year’s garden you can also find plants that can be planted this late in the season such as bushes, trees and bulbs.  The prices on these plants are usually well below cost. 

If you have wanted to buy new spring and summer kitchen and patio items from the house wares department, the end of the summer is the perfect time to stock up.  Great items to find at summer sales include plastic ware for your patio, brightly colored dishes, cups, and silverware and food storage containers.  Other sale items you can get for pennies on the dollar include picnic baskets, seasonal towels and tablecloths.

Another department that has summer close-outs in retail stores is the craft department.  Great items include summer themed and lightweight materials for sewing projects, summer craft items, floral decorations, summer scrapbook papers and summer stickers.  Stock up on these items at the end of the summer and you will have enough projects to keep you busy all winter long.  This is also a great time to buy summer specialty fabrics for reupholstering projects.

Automotive stores also have great summer close-out sales.  They often have clearances on tires and summer items such as seat covers, car covers and steering wheel covers.  Many automotive departments also offer great deals on winterizing your car at the end of summer as well.

Home improvement businesses as well as hardware departments in your favorite retail store have great end of summer sales.  Find clearance prices on your favorite paints, carpeting and flooring at the end of the summer.  Other items that can be found in these stores during close-out sales are portable coolers, water coolers, patio furniture, grills and fencing.  Retailers also sell their floor models at this time of year.  Buy these items now and enjoy them at a fraction of the cost next year.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 16th, 2007 at 9:30 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.