Sometimes the best bargains can be found on the store's website. Photo / Thinkstock
Sometimes the best bargains can be found on the store's website. Photo / Thinkstock
Opinion by Diana Clement
Diana Clement is a freelance journalist who has written a column for the Herald since 2004. Before that, she was personal finance editor for the Sunday Business (now The Business) newspaper in London.
Savvy shoppers know their sales. They have the dates marked in their calendars and get the best bargains.
Whatever your style or store preference, you can find a bargain if you're willing to put in some research before shopping.
Sale aficionados know the start and end dates of the sale,and when the best deals can be found during that period.
Sales such as Smith & Caughey's, where the prices don't change, are best to visit at the beginning. Others start with relatively small reductions and gradually reduce prices until the stuff is all gone.
If you wait long enough you may get an amazing bargain.
Sometimes the best bargains can be found on the store's website, or at least there is a better selection online.
I figured out at the end of the last soccer season that Rebel Sport's sale boots are often just as cheap as overseas stores and its online range is better than in my local store.
Rebel Sport group marketing manager Tanya Laurence says signing up for email updates is the best way to get early notice of sales.
Dropping in towards the end of the sales can be very useful indeed.
My teenage daughter stretches her budget by making a beeline for final clearance tables and rails.
At Farmers and other stores such as The Warehouse there are two types of sales: one is discount events for a specific timeframe; the other is clearance lines, where goods are discounted until they go.
