The Greatest Sales Ever: The Bargains Americans Actually Bought, 1945–2005
There is a difference between a cheap purchase and a great sale.
A cheap product may simply have been cheap to begin with. A genuine bargain is different: it is something normally sold for a substantially higher price that, for a limited period, can actually be bought for dramatically less.
Between 1945 and 2005, American retailing went through an extraordinary transformation. The postwar department store still relied heavily on periodic clearance events, seasonal sales and the traditional January and summer markdowns. By the 1980s and 1990s, outlet stores, factory clearances, closeouts and increasingly aggressive promotional pricing had become commonplace. By the beginning of the 21st century, retailers were routinely advertising merchandise at 60, 70 or even 80 percent below its stated original price.
But which were the great deals?
The answer is not necessarily the most spectacular percentage printed on a newspaper advertisement. A genuine bargain requires some evidence that the original price was a real selling price rather than an imaginary number invented for the sale tag.
That makes the history of sales surprisingly fascinating.
The Postwar Bargain: 1945–1959
In the years immediately after World War II, American consumers were entering a period of extraordinary prosperity, but retailers had not yet developed today's culture of perpetual markdowns.
A sale was an event.
Newspapers carried large advertisements announcing the beginning of a clearance, and shoppers knew that once the merchandise was gone, it was gone.
One January 1950 advertisement, for example, offered women's shoes with regular values up to $11.95 for $6 and shoes normally priced to $8.95 for $4. That represented reductions of roughly 50 percent. The same advertisement offered nationally known toiletries at exactly half their regular prices because their outer packaging had become slightly soiled.
That last detail is important. A customer wasn't necessarily buying an inferior product. The merchandise was discounted because its packaging had been handled.
This was one of the great characteristics of mid-century bargain hunting: the reason for the markdown was often physical rather than economic.
A slightly damaged box, an outdated color, last year's style or a leftover size could transform an otherwise ordinary product into a spectacular deal.
The $10.95 Shoes for $4.89
Another 1950 advertisement gives an even better sense of the possibilities.
Men's two-tone sport oxfords carrying a $10.95 regular price were offered for $4.89 — a reduction of approximately 55 percent. Women's $5.95 dress shoes were offered for $3.33, while $2.98 women's shoes were marked down to $1.94.
The advertisements were unapologetically specific.
This wasn't “up to 55 percent off selected merchandise.”
It was:
$10.95 → $4.89.
For a shopper who happened to want that particular pair of shoes, the saving was real.
The Final Clearance
The really interesting bargains came at the end of a clearance.
In January 1950, one Georgia department store advertised a “FINAL CLEARANCE SALE” in which women's dresses originally valued to $1.95 were being sold for $1, dresses for $3.99, men's gabardine trousers for $1.98 and women's winter coats and suits for $1.98. Nylons with values to $1.69 were 88 cents.
The reductions weren't necessarily uniform, but the pattern was unmistakable: merchandise that had already been marked down was being pushed toward its final price.
This is an important principle of historical bargain hunting:
The greatest bargains often occurred at the very end of a sale.
The price went down because the retailer valued getting rid of the merchandise more than getting another dollar from it.
1955: Half-Price Summer Dresses
The same strategy was still alive in the mid-1950s.
A 1955 advertisement announced a “FINAL CLEARANCE on all summer goods,” with every dress in stock reduced to half price and some merchandise “considerably less than half price.” Dresses normally selling for $3.95 to $7.95 were offered at $1.98 to $3.95.
This was the classic seasonal bargain.
The retailer had no reason to carry summer dresses into the next season. The customer, meanwhile, could buy exactly the same garment for winter storage or simply take advantage of the discount.
The bargain hunter was effectively being paid to accept last year's fashion.
1965: The Pre-Inventory Sale
By 1965, the language of clearance had become even more aggressive.
A Texas store advertised a “PRE INVENTORY CLEARANCE” with fall and winter merchandise reduced up to 50 percent. Individual examples were more revealing than the headline.
A $12.95 coat was $8.90.
A $16.95–$17.95 coat was $12.80.
But a $29.95 coat was offered for $19.80, and certain other garments were marked down substantially more.
The reason was simple: inventory.
A retailer preparing to count its stock had an incentive to turn merchandise into cash. Inventory sitting on a shelf was an accounting problem; inventory sold to a customer was money.
The pre-inventory sale was therefore an early form of what would become a central feature of modern retailing: the clearance of merchandise because it was expensive to keep.
1970: Clearance Becomes a Retail Institution
By 1970, clearance sales had become a regular part of American retail culture.
A January 1970 advertisement announced an annual winter clearance offering 20 to 50 percent off dresses, coats, suits and sportswear. Another store advertised a storewide clearance of 20 percent off and more, while a furniture operation offered 20 to 40 percent reductions across its merchandise.
The numbers are not as spectacular as those found in later decades, but that is part of the story.
A 30 or 40 percent reduction in 1970 could represent a genuinely meaningful retail bargain because the normal price structure was different. Retailers had not yet trained consumers to expect enormous “sale” discounts every week.
A sale was still something special.
The 1970s: The Half-Price Revolution
During the 1970s, the great American department-store clearance became increasingly familiar.
Clothing was particularly susceptible.
Fashion has a peculiar problem for retailers: yesterday's merchandise becomes less desirable without becoming physically defective. A perfectly good dress can become difficult to sell simply because the next season has arrived.
That created opportunities for shoppers.
A garment could be 20 percent off at the beginning of clearance, 40 percent off later, and 50 percent or more at the end.
The bargain hunter's strategy was consequently simple:
Wait.
The danger, of course, was that someone else would buy the item first.
1980: 70 Percent Off
By the 1980s, the phrase “up to 70% off” was appearing regularly in American retail advertising.
A 1985 advertisement for a women's boutique in Michigan announced winter clearance savings of up to 70 percent.
Another 1985 advertisement for a summer sidewalk clearance advertised selected merchandise at up to 70 percent off and other merchandise at up to 75 percent off. Individual examples make the bargain more concrete:
- $40 sandals → $9.88
- $52 Bally shoes → $24.88
- $100 shoes → $29.88
- $85 shoes → $39.88
- $100 shoes → $49.88
The $100 item at $29.88 represents a reduction of about 70 percent.
Now we're getting into serious bargain territory.
And notice something important: these were not necessarily anonymous, low-quality goods. The advertisement specifically highlighted brands such as Bally, Bruno Magli, Cole-Haan and Bass.
Records for $1.99
The 1980s also produced spectacular bargains in merchandise whose value was changing because of technology.
A 1985 “Giant Record Clearance” advertised everything at 20–70 percent off, with records offered at $1.99, $3.99 and similar prices.
This is an important category of bargain because format changes could destroy the value of inventory almost overnight.
When consumers switched from one format to another, retailers were left with physical stock they needed to sell.
The customer who didn't care whether the music was fashionable could therefore obtain enormous value.
The Outlet-Store Revolution
The late 1980s and early 1990s introduced another important development: the factory outlet.
Instead of waiting for a department store to clear its merchandise, consumers could go directly to stores whose entire business model was based on discounted merchandise.
A 1990 report on the Citadel outlet complex in Los Angeles described Gap merchandise being offered at 30 to 70 percent below original retail. The outlet's inventory included sale merchandise consolidated from regular stores, irregulars and damaged items. Other brands were reportedly tagged around 50 percent below retail, with some prices described as well below wholesale.
This was a fundamental change.
The bargain was no longer an occasional event.
The bargain became the business model.
The $500 Suit for $200
By the end of the 20th century, post-season shopping could produce some of the best legitimate bargains of all.
A 1990 Los Angeles Times consumer article advised shoppers to buy immediately after Christmas, when they could find merchandise 50, 60 or 70 percent off. One financial planner gave a particularly vivid example: $500–$600 suits could be purchased for about $200.
That's a discount of roughly 60–67 percent.
And it explains why experienced shoppers have traditionally viewed the day after Christmas as something very different from Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve is when you pay for certainty.
December 26 is when you negotiate with the retailer's inventory department.
The Dark Side of “70% Off”
But the late 20th century also produced a problem.
The larger the advertised discount became, the easier it was for retailers to manipulate the apparent bargain.
A 1990 Los Angeles Times investigation described the problem directly: advertisements proclaiming “70% Off!” might compare the sale price with a so-called regular price that the merchandise had rarely, if ever, actually sold for.
This creates an essential rule for historical bargain hunters:
Don't measure the discount from the tag. Measure it from reality.
A $100 item marked “70% off” is not necessarily a $70 bargain.
If nobody ever actually paid $100 for it, the relevant comparison is meaningless.
The best historical sales are therefore those where we can identify a genuine ordinary price and a genuine sale price.
2001: 75 Percent Off at Target
By the beginning of the 21st century, the clearance process had become extraordinarily aggressive.
A 2001 report from a Target shopper described merchandise being cleared at 75 percent off, including a Weber grill originally priced at $349.99 and marked to approximately $87.50.
That is a reduction of exactly 75 percent.
And it demonstrates why clearance hunting could be so rewarding.
A $350 grill wasn't suddenly worth only $88. The retailer simply needed to sell a particular piece of inventory and had reached the point where moving it was more valuable than preserving the original margin.
Another Target clearance reported that year offered Timex and Casio watches for $4.99 against $19.99 prices — another 75 percent reduction.
These are the kinds of bargains that deserve to be called great sales.
2001: The Internet Joins the Hunt
The Internet changed bargain hunting dramatically.
Suddenly a shopper no longer had to physically visit twenty stores to discover which retailer had marked down an item.
Online closeouts could be searched from home.
A 2001 Los Angeles Times article described Overstock.com selling manufacturers' overstocks and reported examples of merchandise discounted by 60 percent or more, including a customer's reported purchase of a North Face parka at 80 percent off.
The Internet therefore accelerated a process already underway.
The shopper was becoming a professional bargain hunter.
2002: 80 Percent Off
By 2002, 80 percent markdowns were no longer extraordinary.
An online clearance promotion at Bluefly advertised merchandise reduced up to 80 percent, with an additional 15 percent coupon potentially stackable on top of the clearance price. Contemporary shoppers reported items such as Kenneth Cole jeans for $10 and unusually large reductions on designer suits and jackets.
Another 2002 clearance promotion advertised merchandise at up to 80 percent off, with a further $20 discount available on qualifying purchases.
At this point the mathematics could become remarkable.
An item reduced 80 percent from a genuine $100 selling price becomes $20.
Apply another 20 percent coupon and it becomes $16.
The effective discount is then 84 percent.
That's getting close to the outer limit of conventional retail bargains.
Kmart's 80 Percent Clearance
A particularly striking example appeared in 2002 at a Kmart location.
A contemporary report listed:
- gold and fine jewelry — 80% off
- Christmas trees and greeting cards — 70% off
- snow shovels and certain seasonal merchandise — 60% off
- clearance apparel, cosmetics, toys and other categories — 50% off
- sporting goods and hardware — 40% off
The important qualification is that these were location-specific markdowns, not necessarily a nationwide Kmart promotion.
But that is precisely what makes them interesting.
The greatest bargains were often local.
One store could be desperate to clear something while another store still had customers willing to pay full price.
The 2002 Home-Improvement Bargain
Home improvement stores produced another variety of great deal: the final markdown.
A 2002 Home Depot clearance discussion records 80-percent reductions on certain merchandise. One shopper reported buying a 500-foot spool of Monster Cable for $31 after it reached that markdown level.
This was not necessarily the kind of bargain that would appear in a national advertising campaign.
It was better.
It was a local clearance discovery.
The shopper happened to be in the right store at the right time.
So What Was the Greatest Sale?
There probably isn't a single answer.
If we're measuring percentage discount, the late 1990s and early 2000s produced some extraordinary 75–80 percent clearances.
If we're measuring absolute dollar savings, a $600 suit reduced to $200 represents a much larger saving than a $20 shirt reduced to $4.
If we're measuring quality relative to price, the 1980s and 1990s outlet-store bargains become especially interesting.
And if we're measuring the pure excitement of bargain hunting, nothing beats the final item on a clearance rack:
Regularly $100.
Now $25.
Additional 50% off clearance.
The resulting $12.50 price is an 87.5 percent effective reduction — provided that the original $100 price was genuine.
The Golden Age of the Great Sale
The period from 1945 to 2005 can therefore be divided into several eras.
1945–1960: the age of the genuine department-store sale. Half-price merchandise was noteworthy.
1960–1975: seasonal and inventory clearances became increasingly sophisticated, with 30–50 percent reductions becoming common.
1975–1990: 50–70 percent clearance pricing became increasingly visible, especially in clothing and specialty retail.
1990–2000: outlet stores and aggressive promotional pricing transformed the meaning of “sale.”
2000–2005: the Internet, liquidation outlets and increasingly sophisticated clearance systems created opportunities for 70–80 percent discounts and occasional combinations of markdowns and coupons that pushed effective savings even higher.
The bargain hunter had never had more opportunities.
But neither had the retailer had more ways to make an ordinary price look like a bargain.
The Greatest Bargains Were the Ones You Had to Hunt
The most memorable sales of the period weren't necessarily the famous national promotions.
They were the accidental ones.
The winter coat that remained after every other size had sold.
The $350 grill sitting alone in a Target clearance aisle.
The expensive shoes left in an unpopular size.
The box of records a store simply wanted gone.
The spool of cable that had reached its final markdown.
The department store that was closing.
The customer who happened to walk in on the last day.
That is what makes historical bargain hunting so appealing.
The great sale was rarely just a percentage printed in an advertisement.
It was a moment when the seller's need to get rid of something became greater than the buyer's need to pay the normal price.
And between 1945 and 2005, there were millions of such moments.
The trick was being there when the price finally became ridiculous.
