Understanding Target Red Tag Markdowns

*This is a repost from my early blog days.

How to understand Target tags and markdowns

I went to Target today to scope out the markdown situation. (This is actually from 2 years ago :)) While I was there I was looking for the little red or orange to some people tags in different departments and end cap areas (“note to self”red clearence tags aren’t just on end caps) I bought some items and took some pictures of different tags.  My goal was to figure out and understand the Target red tag markdown system and share what I’ve learned….. Here  are the tags and notes on each one.

As you can see in the first photo there are two tags stacked on top of each other….the lower tag has a 50 in the upper right hand corner and the outer tag has a 75 which does from my calculations indicate the percent markdown. The same is also true for the other tags shown.  I thought this was interesting info and I had fun today scoping out the deals.  If you have your eye on something marked at 30 percent off or 50 it’s probably a good idea to check on it weekly to see if it gets marked down again. I’m not sure how often they remark clearance. I did notice things marked down to 15, 30,50,75 and one at even 85 percent off. I was amazed at some of the boys shirts marked down to 1.98 and 1.24, in fact I had to snag a few to give away…..couldn’t help myself 🙂 I included a pic of the 85 percent off tag..

Another point that was posted and I deleted was the info from a former employee concerning a tag ending in the number “4”. It stated that was a tip off that it was at it’s lowest price. From my findings today I would say 75 percent of the time that is true but it is all based on the original selling price. For example one of the items I saw today had an original price of 1.49, the 30 percent off figure was $1.04, the 50 percent off figure was $.74. If you would have purchased it because you saw the number 4 thinking that was the lowest it would go it wouldn’t have been correct. It is true in many cases but not always. My advice is to just check out those little numbers in the upper right corner and let them be your quick guide. Oh, and don’t forget your glasses if you need them…. I had to go over and get some from the pharmacy area, lol, I purchased them in case you are wondering 🙂 I tried to be discrete while using them; they had a big plastic tag jetting out the front and I couldn’t get it off 🙂

Here are 2 boys shirts I purchased today. The short sleeve one is $1.98 (75 percent off) and the other shirt $1.24 (85 percent off) I’m thinking 85 off is kind of rare.