What's the best month to shop for cheaper deals?
They revealed that there's a most profitable month for shopping. I'm curious when exactly that happens and what kind of discounts you can expect?
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January and February are traditionally the most profitable months for shopping. After the New Year holidays, stores get rid of leftover seasonal items (winter clothes, Christmas decorations, holiday sweets), so discounts on them reach 50-70%. At the same time, preparation for spring is underway, and retailers are rushing to clear shelf space for new collections.
Fall is also a pretty good period - August and September are traditionally advantageous for buying summer clothes and accessories when they're losing relevance. Summer sales can be really generous, especially toward the end of August. If you catch the moment at the end of the month before the transition to fall inventory, you can find good prices.
May and October are considered transition months with moderate discounts - seasonal items are running out, but new products are already in stores. Avoid active shopping in June-December (except the already mentioned December with the lead-up to January sales), since there are basically no discounts or they're minimal - merchandise sells at full price. The main rule: buy things that are going out of season, not things that are just coming into fashion.
The biggest discounts traditionally happen at the end of seasons - in the summer during August-September (when they clear out summer clothes) and in winter during January (New Year sales). The exact discount amounts depend on the store and product category, but they're usually 30-50%, sometimes even more on leftover items from the previous season.
Don't expect to get the same discounts at any time - they really are tied to seasons and store logic. I've noticed that the biggest traps are set before holidays (like they raise prices and then "give" you a discount back to the same amount), so I'd say avoid falling for that.
In practice, it's most profitable to catch the end of seasons - summer things go cheaper at the end of summer, winter stuff the same way at the end of winter. I managed to get a decent deal on a jacket in February-March, when stores were already preparing for the warm season and urgently getting rid of old stock. October is also a decent month for discounts on leftover summer items before winter shipments arrive - maybe it's worth checking out what's left from summer right now.
I've noticed that the best discounts actually happen not during the peak of the sales, but a bit after them - like at the end of January, when the main wave of shoppers has already passed! By that time, stores start urgently clearing out their leftover stock, and the discount percentage is often higher than in the first days of the sale. Fair warning though: if you spot a "discount" right before a major holiday or seasonal sale, check the original price through an app or price history - they often jack up the price first and then "discount" it back to the same amount!
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