Let’s just get the obvious bit of this post out of the way: I used to scoff at shopping in sales. After graduating and moving to Boston for my first real job out of college, I fancied myself too good (read:too cheap) to wait for discounts. Instead, I spent an embarrassing portion of my salary at full-price retail like Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue because…I don’t know.
Waiting for sale prices felt “cheap” or beneath someone who’d just landed her first giant paycheck. Oh man, did my student loans laugh at me. Thankfully one of my British coworkers took pity on me and clued me in to shopping the sales strategically.
Best. Decision.
Ever.
If you know how to shop sales properly, you’d too can revolutionize your wardrobe (while saving tons of money).
Because let’s be honest – I didn’t learn how to strategically shop sales from Next. No, I had that lecture handed to me by my English flatmate Sarah back when I lived in London for six months on business.
Sarah took sale shopping like it was war – every item had to earn its place in our closets and hers. Sarah taught me a lot about Next (holla at your girl abroad!) but let’s start at the beginning. Unless you’ve lived under a rock your whole life, you know that Next has insane sales.
Like, everyone in England waits all year for these bitches to drop. But there’s a lot that goes into conquering them, and anyone can do it with the right strategy. First things first.
Next sales are nothing like the gradual department store sales back home. They’re major events. Four times a year Next slashes prices on tons of merchandise all at once, sending hoards of shoppers into fucking chaos.
They have four major sales a year – usually in January (post Christmas return selling), March (end of winter sale), July (summer markdowns) and September (back to school, pre-autumn sale). BUT. Here’s a secret for you – while everyone waits for the big April, July, October, and January sales, there are also smaller random sales Next does throughout the year that no one ever posts on the calendar.
This drives me insane. Around Valentine’s Day I fell in love with a cream wool blazer. Remember that!
I mentally marked it on my calendar to snatch up come July, but…didn’t. Next sales out here are notorious for selling out of certain styles incredibly quickly because let’s face it, everyone knows they’re coming. But NO ONE posts the random sales Next does – so that blazer sold out during some Tuesday morning flash sale that lasted about six hours.
By the time I figured it out…it was gone. Cue three months of extreme angst every time I walked past a Next in London. Lesson learned.
Now when I know a sale is coming (aka whenever I have to fly into London for work, which is tragically more than I’d like these days) I hit up the fucker about two weeks prior and do what Sarah likes to call “recon shopping.” Basically, I walk in with my closet stare naked and browse. I’m not trying to buy anything on this trip – I’m trying to scope out what’s where, what sizes are still in stock, and come home with a badass hitting list. Most department stores in the US rotate and reorder their inventory before sales – NOT NEXT.
They just put new price tags on everything overnight and open the fuck up. You better believe I’ve spent hours memorizing exactly where clothing racks and sale items are located before sale day. You can thank me later.
Next sales also start at the most irrational hours of the day. Like, f*cking 2: 30 in the morning UK time starts the online sale. In store?
They open at 5-6AM. Every. Single.
Time. I do not understand the British fascination with selling people clothing at obscene hours of the morning. Part of me thinks it’s a genius crowd control method.
Part of me thinks it’s just sadistic. I’ll never forget my first attempt at online sale shopping. I set my alarm for 2:15AM London time (9:15PM EST.
MAGIC I TELL YOU.) to ready myself to pounce on the dresser sets I died over two weeks prior. By the time I logged in at 2: 30, Next’s website had crashed under the sheer amount of shoppers trying to access it. Twenty minutes later when it finally came back up, half the stuff I wanted was sold out.
Literally cried. Which brings me to my next tip. If you play your cards right, you can get VIP early access to the sales.
VIP status is Next’s reward system for big spenders. They require you have their store card, and from what I understand you have to spend at least £500/year to be eligible (not that I’ve ever kept track because OBVIOUSLY I SPEND WAY MORE THAN THAT). VIP early access gets you into the sale online three days before the masses, starting at the reasonable hour of 7PM with fully-functioning websites and higher-than-usual stock.
But here’s the kicker – you have to have planned your entire arsenal of purchases ahead of time. Because if you need that specially-sized clothing rack to miraculously re-stock your size overnight…you’re shit out of luck. Trust me when I say I spent my entire six months in London trying to max out my spending at Next just to earn VIP status.
Every extra item purchased in the name of grabbing those kick-ass sales went through Next. Gifts for family at Christmas? Next.
Odds and ends that would typically be mailed to me from Amazon? Ordered through Next. You name it, I probably bought it through Next to rack up that reward points.
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VIP status = LIFE. You know how in department stores back home the homewear section is always hit or miss? Next’s is on POINT.
ALL. YEAR. ROUND.
Their bedding, in particular, is TO DIE FOR. Best money I ever spend? Egyptian cotton sheet sets I bought in Dublin for €50 (about £45 / $60) that would cost $200+ at Bloomingdales back home.
Pro tip: stick to the neutral colours (white, cream, light grey) during non-sale season. The trendy patterns and bright colours never discount as deeply, apparently because everyone and their mother buys that shit as soon as it hits the sales floor. I also WILL ONE DAY blog about British women’s clothing separate from Next specifically because tbh it’s a goddamn shit show.
Some seasons are better than others, but it’s typically not worth spending much money on because returns are INSANE. Unless something is on serious discount or you know you’ll 100% wear it, I suggest steering clear of anything expensive. *Cough* New Look clothing *cough* That being said, Next stocks way more brand names than you think! While their own in-house clothing line is pretty big miss-lots-of-hit style, they stock outside brands often at better discounts than you’ll find anywhere else.
I’ve scored Whistles dresses for half price, Phase Eight blazers for INSANELY discounted prices (literally $150 blazers marked down to $40, PEOPLE. ), even some random Scandinavian brand tops I can’t find anywhere else but were stupid cheap at Next. My favourite find? This Ganni knock-off floral dress that was originally £89 but I bought for £25 because it was the last one in my size.
Honorable mention to the men’s section – guys, you’re going to flip over Next’s suit prices. Seriously, their suits depressingly underestimate their value. I bought my brother a charcoal wool suit in the sale that was originally £399 but I got for £119.
He wears that shit to court all the time in Atlanta (yes he’s a lawyer now) and gets compliments on it weekly because it SEEMS more expensive than it actually is. Solid. Onto the adventure that is shopping IN-STORE at Next sales.
Because nothing says relax like lining up around the block before dawn to fight for cashmere jumpers. I made the mistake my first time around of trying to conquer the Oxford Street flagship shop’s summer sale (aka the best sales because literally everything goes on sale) at like 7AM. Know what I was greeted with when I got there?
FUCKING BLOCKS. Waited in line for two solid hours listening to English women discuss their “sale strategy” like they were legislators debating tax reform. When I finally got in, it was zoo-ing.
And I do mean ZOO-ing. No violence or shoving or anything but WOMEN ARE NOT KIND when it comes to sales – and English women may have taken the lead on sale-shopping viciousness. I’ve watched women in their thirties weave through crowds to cut other people in line and grab THAT STRAWBERRY SCENTED MATCHA CAKE SCENTED TOP THAT WILL go out of stock in TWO MINUTES.
I’ve seen women in their SIXTIES run in full-on road rage style across stores to cut someone off and grab the last Lilly Pulitzer print dress in her size. Lesson learned. Now I line up with the best of them and mentally prepare myself for everything I’m about to witness.
Disclaimer – fitting rooms close during the first few hours of larger sales. Once I finally got through the velvet rope and fought my way into the sales section, I was already too deep in. I learned this the hard way, stopping to try on a cute silk blouse I’d mentally justified in my shopping excursions days prior.
I ended up with top in hand comparing it to my body in the mirror to see if it’d “stretch” enough to be worth buying – something that should NEVER be a requirement when shopping for women’s clothes. It sat in my London closet for months afterward with the tags still on because pride got the best of me. Don’t be like me.
Speaking of returns…don’t plan on returning much if you shop in-store during sales. Their return policy is decent. You get 14 days from purchase to return sale items for a full refund.
BUT – you better believe they make you SHOW YOUR RECEIPT. I almost couldn’t return a pair of boots that gave me blisters because I threw out the receipt, moving abroad and all. Store manager was nice about it (politely told me to GTFO), but said zero unless I could physically produce a receipt.
So stock up on bags, ladies. You’ll need ’em. NEVER underestimate the power of dry cleaning when shopping the sales.
Like I said before, I used to convince myself I could “alter things to fit” when I saw cute clothes I loved but were too small. I finally learned my lesson when I dropped nearly half the sale price of a blazer just to have it tailored in London. It STILL doesn’t fit right.
Save yourself the headache, and only buy things that fit off the rack or need minor adjustments (short sleeves, hemming, etc.). You’re smarter than that, reader. Trust me, I started a wholePinterestboard ofthingsIneedfromNext just to justify buying.
There’s this adrenaline rush when you see something in the sale that you know is way too cheap to be true – your brain flashes you images of how good of a deal you’d look rocking that cheap-ass top everywhere you go. Here are some foolproof ways I avoid falling into that trap: NO TROUSERS/BOTTOMS ON SALES DAY.
I literally never buy clothes I see on sale.
Ever.
If I didn’t love it enough to buy it at full price, I’m not buying it at all just because BOGO. Or 70% off.
Set yourself a budget beforehand that you know you’re comfortable with – I normally spend around £200-£300 per sale and have yet to go over (thanks, planning!). When you do buy? Focus on neutrals and basics that you know will get immediate wardrobe rotation.
That batik somehow-still-trendy-in-2019 top might be cute, but you’re just going to push it to the back of your closet because it’s “hard to wear.” Same batik top but in black? You’ll wear it every week. It’s July as I type this, and I just got back from finalising my sale prep/shopping trip to London.
There’s a linen blazer I’ve had my eye on for MONTHS that would be perfect toting around during Boston’s God-Awful air conditioning in the office. I plan to shop smarter than ever this trip – and you should too. Cheers to being the smartest sale-shoppers hell hath ever sold.
