Store Closing Sales

A store closing sale is a great place to find some deals. The sooner you go, the more selection you will have, but the longer you wait, the better the deal could be.

A store closing sale is really a bittersweet experience. In today's economy, it is a sad representation of reality. There are stores that have been around forever that are closing up shop - retailers big and small. Shopping plazas and shopping malls are at low occupancy. We as consumers are losing the opportunity to have as many choices on where to shop. It worries me in many ways.

Of course, I'm not one to pass up a deal, either. I hate to see stores going out of business, but if I can get something I will use for a discounted price, then it is at least worth exploring.

We were at the mall on Saturday to get our Valentine's pictures done and while there, noticed that the Carlton Card Store was having a store closing sale. We had some time to kill while our pictures were uploaded for us to view, so we decided to take a stroll over and see what they had. They were already at 75% off on most things (oddly Valentine's items were the only thing at only a 25% discount - at least it appears that they have a good business sense in that regard).



We were able to pick up the following items:

7 - juvenile birthday cards
2 - boxes (10ct) of note cards - one girl/one boy
1 - pack of Abby Cadabby party hats
1 - pack of Abby Cadabby luncheon napkins
1 - Abby Cadabby table cover
2 - packs of Abby Cadabby invitations
1 - Abby Cadabby Birthday badge/ribbon

Total cost $12.72 for 15 items. I do have to say, it was more than a bit obvious that things were marked up before being marked down. I'm sure it was done at the beginning to allow them to still recover the costs even with the early discount levels, but it seems somehow unfair. (My husband has a theory on Walmart Rollbacks that I will have to share in a future post)

We are taking a shot on Abby Cadabby still being of interest to our daughter in 9 months, but we have friends with younger daughters that we could always share the party gear with. This is one of those ways of having a child's birthday party for less that I didn't include in my post a few weeks ago - finding party gear on clearance. My husband was concerned that he wouldn't be making the invitations, which could lead to disappointment on the part of the family. I need to start figuring out what type of birthday cake I will make.

I also need to head to another store that sells American Greetings Partyware to determine if the Abby Cadabby theme is a current one and I can get a few more items - like dessert plates to complete the ensemble. If not, I can always go with the pastel pink and blues.