Where to find clearance LEGO sets at Walmart and Target

We are in the midst of one of the best clearance times of the year for several retailers, including the two biggest and well known Lego retailers: Target and Walmart (I'm ignoring you TRU because you seem to think that clearance is a 5% discount on a set overpriced by 30%). A lot of people post the great deals they find in the forums. Unfortunately we see a lot of people saying they never find these deals.

Well, while its true that not every Walmart or Target in every area puts clearance items out, I wanted to go through some clearance tips for both of these retailers as well as show pictures of what to look for just to make sure no one misses anything.

Walmart

Generally Walmart does major clearance once in the summer and once at the first of the year after Christmas, just like Target. However, clearance can also be sporadically spread throughout the year depending on the sets that are going EOL and how many are left at a local Walmart. In my experience, the Walmart toy managers have a lot more say so over when they can put things on clearance. Also, they are much worse at stocking and commonly find old sets that are clearanced in the system in the back.

On top of that, Walmart doesn't stick to a straight schedule for when to clearance items. For instance, they started clearing MF and Super Hero sets in March, but still haven’t started other summer clearance (my Walmart has 100 sets sitting on the shelves that are old and will need to be moved once the new fall sets come out).

My strategy with Walmart is to check every time I go. I go to Walmart about once a week at least as there are three within close vicinity to me, and 5 in my town. I check every time I go because it only takes a few minutes if I am already there and I don't want to miss anything. If you don't visit Walmart a lot, this becomes tougher. If there is one close to you, I would try every two weeks or so. If there is not, I would watch closely for deals on clearance at Walmart posted on this site and then check at those points.

Walmart will also tell you over the phone whether they have clearanced sets if you can get to the toy department. Not everyone will go check, but if you get someone in the toy department they will tell you if they know.

So where do you need to check in Walmart? In my experience, there are 4 places: The Lego isle, a toys-only clearance isle, a store clearance isle, and the ends of an isle.

When clearance sets are in the Lego isle, they are normally in their usual spots with red tags posted under them on the shelves as shown below:

Its usually pretty obvious when these are on clearance because of the tags on the actual shelves. Because of this, things are gone fast. When this happens, I always check everywhere in the isle behind all the big sets to make sure that nothing got pushed behind something else. People will hide items and some employees accidentally push something behind another set while marking clearance. I have scored a few sets this way because I was persistent.

Walmart will sometimes red tag the boxes themselves, but not tag the shelves. In this case, it usually means it was manager-decision clearance because there were too many of an item, or its damaged, etc. For these, make sure the Red Tag with the UPC is on it. Chances are it won't come up in the system if it isn't. Watch the price as the teller rings it up as well. I had a time where I wasn't paying attention and an MF set I was buying didn't have the sticker and the teller rang it up retail.

If your Walmart uses a “toys-only” clearance isle, it is usually right by the toys, normally the last isle from the door, or an isle close by to the rest of the toys on the edge of another section. This usually never moves so if you go to a new Walmart and find this, it should always be there. In this case, employees throw anything clearance here, meaning most of the time looking in the isle for clearance is not going to find anything. Here is an example:

In my experience, this isle is extremely messy. It usually has signs a the tops of the isle showing that the items there are clearance. Because this isle is a mess, it unfortunately means you need to go through everything. I have found sets accidentally put behind MegaBlocks and Kinects, I have found them under dress up toys, etc. Its pretty much a rummage sale. The employees will also put anything discounted because of damage here as well. If something looks open – make sure it has all the pieces. Walmart is not above putting a set that is obviously missing pieces back in the isle. Keep your receipts as well as they will take returns on them, but usually only if you have the receipt.

A lot of older Walmarts don't put clearance in a special toy isle or leave it in the regular isles. They throw all clearance items in two or three isles, normally on the outskirts of the store (but sometimes in the very middle near the front) that have big clearance isle signs. Here is a picture:

Things are generally terribly kept as half of the items are discounts because of damage so items don't stack or don't fit properly and just lay on top of each other. I usually just shovel through everything. This isle is the easiest thing to miss if you are in an older Walmart. Most people look for the toy clearance isle, but some do have this “everything goes here” clearance isle in the store. Usually there wont be sections or any type of order to it, so make sure you inspect behind everything big.

I went to my hometown a while back and went to an old Walmart there. I saw nothing in the clearance isle... until I moved a giant boxed dog carrier that was smashed up. I found a Vampyre castle right behind it.

Some small Walmarts that don't carry a lot of items (the really old and non-super Walmarts) will put clearance on the sides of isles because they don't want to take up a full isle. Usually each sections items has its own section clearance side isle. These will look like this:

It could be shelves too. These will not be there year round so be vigilant. One of my smaller Walmarts here recently did this – I just thought they didn't ever have clearance. First week I got a 5887 Dino Defense for $69. A month later I got a SW 7964 Frigate for $69. Can't imagine what I missed before that...

Target
In my experience, Target is much cleaner about what they do with their clearance. Since they really only have clearance times twice a year, its really not worth checking until the first week of July and the first week in January. There are exceptions to this, but not enough for you to run to Target twice a week.

Targets generally don't have a store clearance isle. Every section has either its own clearance section, or they clearance items right in the isle (most do this, especially the newer ones because it looks cleaner). This makes it easy because they are right out in the open.

If they do have a small clearance section, it will either be on the ends of the isles, or it will usually be right in between the sports section and the toys section. Here is a picture of the toy clearance isle:

Notice how much cleaner it is. You can look behind other items for sets, but chances are you wont find them as most Targets keep things pristine. If you find them inside the actual Lego isle, they should be in the their normal places and look like this:

Notice how the set has the clearance tag up in the top corner. Luckily, there don't have UPCs because Target puts them in the system for the main UPC. This means if a tag is missing, you don't have to worry. Plus Target has price checkers on every three or so isle ends.

Target also periodically reduces clearance sets where as some Walmarts will leave them there forever. Every week or so after putting something on clearance, Target will up it by 20%. If they only have a few of the clearance item you find, its probably worth just buying it. But if they have a multitude of them, you can take a chance on them making it farther up the clearance scale. I am currently doing that for.

Well that's what I have seen – I wanted to share to make sure no one else every missed a clearance sale. What types of clearance have you all noticed?

Note: Some of these pictures were found on the web as I didn't have examples of all of these in my area.
Note: All of the information here are my own opinions and are pulled from my experiences. You may or may not have success with these methods.