Target - Summer Clearance

[cowbug]

My local targets have like half a row and four endcaps with 70% off various crap toys, and yet they yanked all the 50% off lego that didn't sell and Goodwilled it yesterday instead of dropping it to 70%. The same thing happened at Christmas. I thought it must be a corporate deal with Lego to limit max clearance discount, but obviously other Targets do it. What the hell is wrong with my region?

Maybe goodwill pays more than the 70% off price? If so that makes sense from a business standpoint. Also, are you sure it was "Goodwilled" and not bought up by reseller or something?

I'm pretty sure Target "donates" the goods to Goodwill and gets to write of the "retail" value as a donation on their taxes. They may think its worth it to get the deduction rather than sell at 70% off of retail.

I do not know this for a fact but other members have posted in the past that Target employees have told them Goowill does buy pallets of clearanced toys and distributes them to their stores. There may be some donating going on but I imagine if it were a write off issue they could do it with any toy, not just lego and still claim the same write off.

[ninjagoyo]

My local targets have like half a row and four endcaps with 70% off various crap toys, and yet they yanked all the 50% off lego that didn't sell and Goodwilled it yesterday

Well, you get to go to Goodwill, right? That's pretty awesome.

We only have one in the area and they do not seem to ever have LEGO.

david

It's not worth the hassle trying to time when and where the merch might show up at goodwill. I wasted a lot of gas doing that at Christmas and came up with zilch. Visited 10+ stores.

[dho7622u]

It's not worth the hassle trying to time when and where the merch might show up at goodwill. I wasted a lot of gas doing that at Christmas and came up with zilch. Visited 10+ stores.

UG...I know that feeling. I gave up on the one here, for that same reason.

david

[atmail35]

I tried the Braintree Target on Friday and all the previousy clearanced items were gone. This sale might be coming to an end. I tried scanning the big Dino set and it was full price.

[just2good]

Found the AC Mothership set opened for $30. The box was damaged, so I went to customer service, all I could get was 10% off, so I (reluctantly) passed...

[moonagedaydream]

Me and a friend both snagged bounty hunter gunships for $24.98 last weekend.

[Jgraj]

Whohoo found one Lego 7972 Anakin & Sebulba Podracer for $27 bucks today. Only deal i have found since last week. It was not marked with a clearance sticker.

[octick]

Found one Marina for 50% off. Going to buy, but as I moved it, I noticed there was too much noise and rattling. Like a bag was open. Upon further inspection, looked like someone re-tapped the box over original tape. Not going to chance it for a set I already own.

[prozac]

Found one Marina for 50% off. Going to buy, but as I moved it, I noticed there was too much noise and rattling. Like a bag was open. Upon further inspection, looked like someone re-tapped the box over original tape. Not going to chance it for a set I already own.

this happened to me at a walmart the other day. I could tell the bags were opened and the box had been retaped. I found a manager and asked if they could take anything off. Informed it was opened and more than likely the figs taken before being returned. Said she could only do 10% cause they could return it for full credit. I would have totally bought it for half off even if it didn't have the figures.

[janckson]

CS probably won't mind opening re-taped sets to check for completeness. A few weeks ago I found a opened Ninjago Ice Dragon. I checked all of the contents at CS desk and everything was there sealed.

[natelite]

it depends on the store. i saw an opened set on clearance and told the CS and the assistant manager at my store and she said i should open it outside the store, not inside because of the security camera. but i told her the seals have been tampered with and i just wanted to verify completeness (not even asking for a further discount) and she said no. i asked if i can open it to verify completeness after i pay for it, but in the store...and she still said no. it's very odd. it's like she was perhaps the perpetrator of the crime or something....like she has something to hide.

[starfire2]

I saw a huge 20x20 Duplo baseplate for $4.98. Too bad we don't do Duplo anymore.

[MakoSlade]

Picked up a few items for 50 % off in various NJ (Linden, Clark, that area) targets:

Clone Turbo Tank
Hogwart's Castle
The Mill
Battle of Naboo (for 70 % off)

I think most things in the area are gone now, even PotC and AC. I haven't seen any other items in the past two weeks, and my recent travelling has taken my to about 6 different Targets.

[Toltec]

I went to the Winchester, VA location to check out some of the new sets and they restocked The Milenium Falcon and Darth Maul's ship (Sith something) both for full retail. I purchased one of each during the clearance sale for 50% off. Odd.

[ncbarrett]

I read an article yesterday that said if a clearance item ends in a 4 that it will not be reduced any further.
so something to consider.

[Gooker1]

I found a couple Battle of Naboos at a Target in LA for 30% off. Picked them up since I didn't have it yet.

[1brickshyofcrazy]

Interestingly I haven't seen any Lego on clearance at Target here in the South...

[Bob-n-Crew]

Almost the entire Lego section is on sale at our Target... for a whole whopping $.10 to $2. off MSRP - which makes for a HUGE let down when you turn the corner to see little red flags of joy stuck to every set in sight! Only to see it amount to less than 10% off. I guess better than 10% over MSRP. Enjoy - Bob (and crew)

[Luciant]

crazy - Yea, it's been REALLY dry down here for clearance... they seem to MAYBE get 30% but more often they go straight to consignment. That with the lack of sale deals has made my purchasing drop tremendously. Might be a good thing.

One thing I've found is waiting for a Lego set to get one of those weekly sales at 20-25% off.. if it sells out, you can get a rain check and use it to get the same discount on another Lego set.

[NIGELTTF]

I'm pretty sure Target "donates" the goods to Goodwill and gets to write of the "retail" value as a donation on their taxes. They may think its worth it to get the deduction rather than sell at 70% off of retail.

If they did that, the IRS would certainly have something to say about it. That is not how tax law works. I should know, I am a tax accountant.

The Deductable value is Fair Market Value, and with the dollar volumes involved they would certainly need to justify it. FMV is certainly not going to be counted as retail if you aren't moving the product at half off. If they want to do FMV of anything other than what they paid, plus a small markup for overhead, isn't going to survive even the most cursorial of audits because of what is specified in Pub 526, under determination of value of large quanities of similar objects.

Corporate income tax rate being 35% plus about 5% local* still wouldn't result in better after tax income by that decicion process.


*On a side note while this is one of the highest in the world, the deductions and credits available in the US make EFFECTIVE corporate tax rates one of the lowest in the world.