Let the Memorial Day sales begin! Nearly every retailer and small business is having a sale this weekend. It’s something to always keep in mind when making your spring/summer shopping plan. For example, here in the Northwest we don’t really get nice weather until later in the spring. If you can make a few purchases earlier, or wear what you have from last year, you can take advantage of the sales in late May and save a bundle.
Before I dig into some specific ideas, I wanted to say thanks for all the comments on the series about Cleaning up your Beauty products. I hope it created some awareness when it comes to checking your ingredients carefully. I went live in my FB group this past Monday and showed my bag of makeup that got tossed.
Even if you didn’t delve into this all yet, I do hope that it will be on your radar in the future. A big thanks to all of you who commented. The winner of the Pure Haven shower gel is Erin H! She had a comment on the very first post. Thanks for reading Erin. And thanks to Georgi of Pure Haven for offering a product for the Giveaway. She knows her stuff. Contact her through the site if you would like even more info. I’m making my list and will be adding in many of these products soon.
On to the sales!
Nordstrom changed their Half Yearly sale a number of years ago to coordinate with other retailers who focused their sales around a holiday–in this case Memorial Day. This is not to be confused with the Anniversary Sale in July which is NEW fall/winter merchandise. On the retail calendar, it’s time to mark things down and make room for fall. I know it seems crazy when we are just getting into summer weather!
As many of you know, I have shopped at Nordstrom for many years and most recently I spent five years there as a Personal Stylist. Although I had been styling on my own before that, working there enhanced my skills. I’m a better stylist because of working retail.
I left there just over a year ago. Recently Nordstrom opened up their stores to Independent Stylists like myself. I can host an appointment at any Nordstrom store in the country. Although I worked at 3 different stores in my short stint, most of my time was spent at the Downtown Portland store. A couple of weeks ago I went back and worked with one of my former clients. Everything works the same as when I was an employee except there is a support person to help me run or scan for other sizes, pull shoes, and ring purchases. It enhances the customer experience even further having two people to help. How do you get one of these appointments? Contact me and I’ll be happy to set something up.
I spent many hours using this dressing room in the Studio, now known as the Individualist Department. I got this space back for my appointment and it felt like I had never left!
If you are long distance, or perhaps don’t want to come in for an appointment, you can also place an order through me. I will guide you with sizes, quality, how to read reviews etc. Having some guidance really makes online shopping doable.
One thing I often hear. “Nordstrom is too expensive and I can’t afford to shop there.” There certainly are higher end items, but other departments are very reasonably priced, and it’s learning how to find the labels and price points that are right for you.
During the Half-yearly there are thousands of items marked down–many online that aren’t so readily found in stores. There is also something called PRICE MATCHING. It will look like this. It means that Nordstrom is matching the price another retailer is offering : 
As you can see, there are nearly two thousand items when I searched PRICE MATCHED. I don’t care how die hard of a shopper you are, who wants to look through all that! Now take a look at the left hand margin. Choose a category to help fine tune your search. Or there are times I’ll put in a designer name in the search box like “Eileen Fisher Price Matched”. In this case, three items came up. Depending on what store is being matched, there may be dozens or just a few.
How to choose from literally twenty thousand things on sale right now?
I start with NEEDS instead of scrolling though page after page of sale item. It’s just too darn time consuming. It also gets easy to dump things into the shopping cart that you do NOT need. More time is wasted having to return poor choices, or having buyer’s remorse. Here’s how I shop for myself and my clients.
List:
1. Zella workout wear.
Might have been a good idea to just put in Zella pants or tops. Instead I found that really great bomber jacket I probably don’t need!
2. Nic and Zoe perfect tanks. I like these because they hold up well, have a forgiving fit and don’t cling. There are always colors on sale.
3. Denim. I’m going to fine tune my search to Paige Hoxton High-rise. It’s a style that fits me really well. So many on sale… I don’t like to pay full price for premium denim and you don’t need to!
4. Vince Camuto tops: I like this brand and I find it to be affordable at regular prices so if I can get something on sale-even better.
So that’s one way to shop the sales–in particular the Nordstrom site. Send me your list and I’ll help you come up with some great affordable pieces!
