Little Green Tags

Ah, the sight of a massive markdown... it just makes your heart go pitter-patter, right?!

Lowe's is now officially on my top ten list of best places to score great deals. It's all about that little tent.

I've heard that you look like less of a clearance sale stalker if you hide behind a tree...

You know, the clearance tent. Most stores have some sort of a clearance section and all are usually great places to look for deals. The clearance section at Lowe's is a little different and it's all because of those little green tags.

What's the big deal about their green tags? Well, what I've found in the past few weekends is that the employees use those tags make up new prices. Unlike at most retail stores where price sheets come down from corporate, these final clearance prices are completely up to the employees.

My first experience watching them do the markdowns happened the weekend before last where an employee makred these drawer organizers down to $1 as I was looking at them. He said, "I think I'll make these $1, I'd like to get one too."

Luckily, I was able to catch another major markdown session this past Saturday where I bought a new light for my ceiling fan and four boxes of outdoor solar lights (I told you this place had big plans).

(That's $10 for a box of six solar lights!)

My suspicions that the employees make up the prices were confirmed on Sunday when I was back at Lowe’s again watching their clearance rug selection getting slashed down to $20 (sadly, I couldn’t find a reason to buy one).

Unless you happen to go to Lowe's as much as I do (I’ll talk about why I was there so much later this week), you'll probably have a hard time catching the clearances items as they're marked... so what good does this discovery do for you? Now you know the amount of power that the Lowe's employees (probably the managers) have over the pricing. This means that that the prices of clearance, damaged, and returned merchandise can probably be negotiated down further! Go out there and cite a few reasons why you think an item is unfairly priced... don't forget to suggest the price that you think is more appropriate. *cross your fingers that I'll be able to use this on a refrigerator!

Have you ever scored big in the Lowe's clearance section? Do you know of any other big box stores that give employees control over pricing?