How do you 'time' the retail market to get the best discounts and sales? Christmas, New year, GSS etc, which ones gives the best discounts? What are the less obvious promo periods?

Hi Aaron,

Interesting question! While I can't say that I know the best times to get discounts and sales for everything, here are my thoughts on your question.

Seasonal Items

One point of consideration for this is whether the product that you are looking to buy is seasonal. For example, if you're looking at makeup/skincare, there are usually a lot of gift sets during the holdiays (Xmas). But because of that, after Xmas is over (Jan - Feb), there tends to be clearances on these gift sets because they are now considered out of season. Another example of such a case is clothing. Winter coats at Uniqlo can cost $200 during the winter season (Nov-Jan), but the same coat can cost $120 after Winter (Feb~Apr). Of course, the downside is that there may be a limited number of options during the clearance period.

General Items

If the product is generally non-seasonal (ie electronics, household), these items don't tend to go on clearance sales and thus the best time to buy such items would probably be during the major sale periods: GSS, BFCM, Xmas.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

thefrugalstudent