KMart Brick & Mortars - A Good Source?

[justafrog]

I've had some good luck with kmart.com, and wondered if regular Kmart brick&mortar stores would be a good thing to add to my buying rounds.

 

Do they have a specific day of the week for markdowns or clearance?

Anyone have good luck there?

 

Thanks for any help, as always. 

[Darth Lego]

I've had some good luck with kmart.com, and wondered if regular Kmart brick&mortar stores would be a good thing to add to my buying rounds.

Do they have a specific day of the week for markdowns or clearance?

Anyone have good luck there?

Thanks for any help, as always.

It has been awhile seen I have gone to a K-Mart so I do not remember what day they markdown their sets.

I've seen some LEGO sets get into the 40% to even 70% range at my local K-Mart. Most of the sets were either City or Creator sets. I picked up a couple of sets for my personal collection. (I didn't know about LEGO investing at the time. It has been about 9 months since I've been to a K-Mart and I started investing about 7 months ago.)

Sorry for drawing this off-topic,(), but some of their newer commercials are pretty funny in my opinion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I03UmJbK0lA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1yir-p68xM

[TheOrcKing]

This is one area I am so not good with. I have one Big K around me and, wow, is it bad. I browsed around the net a bit and much like Walmart, there doesn't seem to be any 'true' schedule for clearances or markdowns aside from the usual holiday sales.

[justafrog]

I'll add them to the mix over the next few weeks as we make our usual book-buying rounds and report back (at least for central California and the greater Bay Area/Silicon Valley.)

[nolanfan34]

The trick with Kmart is you need to find sets marked for clearance. The clearance price itself might not be great, but they often then will do 50% off or more on clearance toys. So as an example, Attack of the Wargs, marked from $49.99 down to $36.99 as clearance, and I picked up 6 of them for $18.50 when the 50% off hit. This happens on Sundays.

 

They are VERY hit and miss though, and I now don't think they are probably worth the effort as the ones around me don't generally carry the bigger sets. They also do frustrating things like clear out stuff (Vampyre Hearse) for cheap on Kmart.com, but still have it full price in the stores.

[exciter1]

Yep, they are hit or miss and they all clearance different stuff.  I ended up with a bunch of Dino and Ninjago sets after Christmas at 50% off the clearance price.  I also did luck into 5 LOTR: Attack on Weathertop for $22.50 and 3 Hobbit: Goblin King Battle sets for $37.50.  I also cleared them out of the Black Phantom Hero Factory sets for $11 each and made a nice profit on those.

[peculiar23]

I found a few of the, "Attack of the warg's" sets for $18.50 as well about a month ago. But that was not the price marked (it was $37) and I have seen no changes in the rest of their Lego stock since.

[exciter1]

I noticed our local KMart had some of the new City, Castle, and Chima sets tonight, so I hope they start marking stuff for clearance soon.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

I hope your Kmarts are better than mine.

 

Went to two the other day here. One had 12 Lego sets (almost all Chima). The other had 4. 4! They should be shut down.

[justafrog]

It'll be interesting. The fortunate part for me is that we're on the road once or twice per week buying books anyway, so making a couple mile side jaunts here and there to check out various stores Lego prices isn't a big time or gas waste for us.

 

And with the potential for stricter buying limits from both Lego.com and their authorized online resellers, I think I'd better keep in practice with the old fashioned way - a pocketful of cash and a full tank of gas. 

[Anakinisvader]

I've had some good luck with kmart.com, and wondered if regular Kmart brick&mortar stores would be a good thing to add to my buying rounds.

 

Here's your answer:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6owgB_2Y2k

[TheOrcKing]

The trick with Kmart is you need to find sets marked for clearance. The clearance price itself might not be great, but they often then will do 50% off or more on clearance toys. So as an example, Attack of the Wargs, marked from $49.99 down to $36.99 as clearance, and I picked up 6 of them for $18.50 when the 50% off hit. This happens on Sundays.

How exactly do you figure out what is clearanced at Kmart? Just about every item has a blue bar on the tag, and price scanning doesn't seem to tell much. I found a clearance aisle once and then next time it wasn't there anymore, so is that section seasonal or do they like to constantly move it around?

Man, I know of AllThingsTarget.com, but is there a similar site for Kmart? Or Walmart even? That would incredibly help everybody.

[wholovesboo]

The clearance shelves at my Kmart are a mess, and I've personally never seen Lego on clearance. But I know recently they had a 50% off clearance items sale, which was awesome that day because I did find something non-Lego that I wanted.

 

I do have a soft spot for my local Kmart though, because I once found an Olivia's Invention Workshop hidden behind some other sets of the same size, and this was way after they were sold out in stores. I suspect it was a late return (or a lost item finally found in the back). I was so excited that I was able to buy the set at regular price. Would have had to pay much more on eBay.

 

Oh and also when the Wave 2 of Friends pets came out, Kmart (online and off) was the first place I was able to find them.

[chinothegeeko]

How exactly do you figure out what is clearanced at Kmart? Just about every item has a blue bar on the tag, and price scanning doesn't seem to tell much. I found a clearance aisle once and then next time it wasn't there anymore, so is that section seasonal or do they like to constantly move it around?

Man, I know of AllThingsTarget.com, but is there a similar site for Kmart? Or Walmart even? That would incredibly help everybody.

They normally are yellow tagged with a clearance label attached to shelving.  Most lego clearance items I found were in the lego aisle

[meowingthings]

Like some others I picked up Attack of the Wargs for $18.50. At the same time I also picked up Uruk-hai Army for $11 (on clearance for $22, then 50% off). I was able to get 8 Wargs and 9 Uruk. Went to three other Kmarts and found nothing.

[theegypt]

So my Kmart has a designated clearance aisle, but I have yet to see any lego sets on this aisle.  I have however, seen some sets marked down on the lego aisle.  When Kmart has the additional 50% off clearance sale, they have large tags all across the clearance aisle stating there is an additional 50% off clearance.  From the posts above, it seems like this additional 50% would actually apply to the lego sets which are marked down but still in the lego aisle?? If so that would be awesome, and a lot of people probably wouldn't even realize the 50% discount applies to items not on the designated clearance aisle. (I didn't!)

[LowestFormOfWit]

Kmart is very all or nothing.

Sometimes during a half off clearance event, it is among the best deals you can find.

Other times it is complete and utter garbage.

For me it is usually thr latter.

[scuttfarkas]

Kmarts actually have one of the better rewards programs.  They often have Buy something for 50.00...get 10.00 in points and similar.  They even do stuff like buy this for 12.00 and get 10.00 back in points.  Those add up. 

[wholovesboo]

Kmarts actually have one of the better rewards programs.  They often have Buy something for 50.00...get 10.00 in points and similar.  They even do stuff like buy this for 12.00 and get 10.00 back in points.  Those add up. 

 

So how do Kmart points work exactly? I signed up at the register when the cashier said it was free to join, but I have yet to figure out how the point system works, and what you can do with them.

[scuttfarkas]

So how do Kmart points work exactly? I signed up at the register when the cashier said it was free to join, but I have yet to figure out how the point system works, and what you can do with them.

 

 

Sort of like Lego stores; you buy something, they ask for  your card or phone number and you get points(money) based on what you spend. You can redemn them for anything.  The initial payoff isn't great ( I think it's a dollar in points for every 100.00 spent).....but they always have specials ranging from anything like "5.00 in Free Points...Just for this Weekend", "Spend 50.00 and get an additional 10.00 in points to use on a future purchase" or "15% back in points on your total order".  That's where you build your points up.  I needed a couple of camping mattresses.  They had these  http://www.kmart.com/shc/s/p_10151_10104_089W005758078001P?mv=rr  for that price (10.99)....but they were also giving you 10.00 per mattress back in points for a future purchase.  Shopyourwayrewards.com is like the hub site for your membership and it's where you can load or print coupons for your account.   

 

It's nice too because since K-Mart is with Sears....both stores purchases funnel into the one account. The only thing they don't do is price match other stores...or their own website.  I went into one when that CITY Fireplane was on sale for 19.99 at TRU.  K-Mart had like 8 and I was ready to load up the cart....but then when I asked them about it...they said no.  Same with the Vampire Hearse for 13.00.  

[wholovesboo]

Sort of like Lego stores; you buy something, they ask for  your card or phone number and you get points(money) based on what you spend. You can redemn them for anything.  The initial payoff isn't great ( I think it's a dollar in points for every 100.00 spent).....but they always have specials ranging from anything like "5.00 in Free Points...Just for this Weekend", "Spend 50.00 and get an additional 10.00 in points to use on a future purchase" or "15% back in points on your total order".  That's where you build your points up.  I needed a couple of camping mattresses.  They had these  http://www.kmart.com/shc/s/p_10151_10104_089W005758078001P?mv=rr  for that price (10.99)....but they were also giving you 10.00 per mattress back in points for a future purchase.  Shopyourwayrewards.com is like the hub site for your membership and it's where you can load or print coupons for your account.   

 

It's nice too because since K-Mart is with Sears....both stores purchases funnel into the one account. The only thing they don't do is price match other stores...or their own website.  I went into one when that CITY Fireplane was on sale for 19.99 at TRU.  K-Mart had like 8 and I was ready to load up the cart....but then when I asked them about it...they said no.  Same with the Vampire Hearse for 13.00.  

 

Thanks for responding...so how do points translate into dollars? Is it that when you reach 100 points that equals $1 off that you can use on any purchase?

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

Kmart is very all or nothing.

Sometimes during a half off clearance event, it is among the best deals you can find.

Other times it is complete and utter garbage.

For me it is usually thr latter.

 

Agree. It is usually garbage for me.

[JoshTX]

My area now longer has any K-Marts, they all went out of business. So I hadn't been in one for years until a recent business trip landed me in the middle of nowheresville, TN. The hotel was a hop skip and jump from K-Mart so I checked it out. No Lego on clearance, and very little lego at all. But it was weird how the store looked like it had not been remodeled in years and years. Their audio/video section warped me back to 1988, they still had a display on the wall with a giant casette tape to advertise their music aisle. I was fully expecting to find Tears for Fears greatest hits on tape and a Ferris Bueller's Day off on VHS blue light special.

[terrymc4677]

my kmart sucks. out of the 450 sets in my investing brickfolio, not one of them was purchased at my kmart. I stop in 1-2 times per week since it is literally about a mile and a half from my house, but every time I leave shaking my head. it's an older store, pretty dirty, always empty from a customer standpoint, and the lego just rots on the shelves at full retail. one of these days I will hit the jackpot there. I just know it...(fingers crossed).

[Coneil21]

I'm with Scuttfarkas -- you can't beat KMarts rewards program, which is actually the "Shop Your Way" rewards program. Heres what I know about the program: