About two years ago, I discovered something strange at J.Crew and still don’t know if I’m allowed to share it. But between now and when they figure it out, I will have saved myself nearly a thousand dollars thanks to this glitch in their pricing system. So, we may as well get into it.
It’s late February in Chicago, deep into one of those winters where you contemplate what’s-barbaric-about-usoppressive-regimes kinds of thoughts. I duck into the J.Crew in the Michigan Avenue storefront, mostly to escape the cold and browse before dinner with my girlfriend. I’m not looking to buy anything – I’d already gone a little crazy on their January sale, restocking my work wardrobe after letting things languish in the deep corners of my closet for too long, and my credit card hadn’t forgiven me yet.
The rule about shopping when you’re in “cooldown mode” after spending too much is that you only look, not touch. Or maybe that’s the rule when you’re on a diet. Regardless, I’m firmly in the anti-window-shopping section of the Sears/JCPenney/recent-J.Crew triangulation on Michigan Avenue, when I see it. The navy blazer I’ve been coveting online for months, on sale. Then I notice the red sticker.
$124.50.
I’d been checking this blazer online for months. It’s a nice piece — lightweight wool-blend, easy to throw on with jeans or khakis and dressed up with a button-down. But the regular price is $248. Every time I’ve clicked through to buy it, my debit card balance mocking me from inside its LCD prison has stopped me.
$124.50 is less better than $248, but still steep for a spur-of-the-shopping-list decision like this.
Hang on — where was I?
Oh, right. As I reluctantly hang the blazer back on the rack like the disciplined man I am, I notice something weird about the tag. The corner of another, smaller sticker is peeking out from underneath the red sale sticker. My fingers do the creeping, quiet work of precariously lifting up the red J.Crew sticker to reveal….
Wait what.
Yellow sticker with “$89.99” clearly handwritten on it.
Oh. My. God.
Except…another sticker. Peeking out from under THAT one?
Holy….
Yep. Green sticker. “$109.99.”
Some glitch in the Matrix. This blazer had been reduced to $109.99, then $89.99…and THEN raised to $124.50?! What the actual fuck.
I bust the bitch to the register. Partially because I’m genuinely confused but also because we all know what I’m really doing — hoping whatever computer they have in the backprice checks at the lowest price. Sales associate McManning — ok, his name tag says Chris, but work with me here — scans it and furrows his brow.
“Huh. Weird. It’s ringing as $67.50 in the system. Let me go ask if that’s right.”
Um, yes. All the yeses.
The manager comes over and looks at the blazer, looks at his computer screen, shrugs and says “If that’s what the computer is saying, that’s what it is bud. Must’ve gotten caught in one of our markdown programs.”
Sold. Keep that baby, Alex.
To this day I wear that blazer to client meetings. But more importantly, I’ve unlocked their secret.
J.Crew’s messed up pricing system.
Bear with me for a second, because what I’m about to tell you has changed the way I shop at JC forever.
The next time I was in J.Crew, I started paying attention to sale tags. Very closely paying attention. It turns out what I found that day with the blazer wasn’t a glitch. It’s not common, but it happens ALL the time.
J Crew doesn’t replace price stickers when putting things on sale. They just put new stickers on top of the old ones. Red stickers = first markdown. Yellow = second. Sometimes you’ll see green or blue, which means the item has been reduced at least three times.
Except — and here’s where the useful part comes in — those aren’t always the prices the register rings up at. Sometimes they are, but you have to get very lucky with the timing of JC’s markdown cycles to find stuff where the stickers match up to the computerized prices.
So I started asking sales associates to scan items before I tried them on. Half the time the price was lower than the tag, sometimes way lower. That sweater you’re looking at for $79 might be $45. Those chinos ringing up at $89 might be $52. I’ve found boots ticketed at $149 that scanned at $98.
Have questions? Comments? Concerns? Let me know, I’ll get right on that J.Crew email form!
My friend Katie worked at J.Crew for a year or so after college and when I told her about this she laughed and said it was completely normal. J.Crew corporate sends out markdown instructions each week, but sometimes they don’t factor in older ones or current promotions. So you end up with everything from pants that were already marked down 40% getting put on “buy one get one half off” promotions that subtract from the original price, not the price after Markdowns.
“They were supposed to re-ticket items when promotions changed,” Katie told me. “But honestly? Most of us were so busy during sale season we didn’t have time. So things just ended up getting covered in stickers, and the register does whatever the computer says to do. Doesn’t always match the newest sticker.”
The sweet spots for these deals are easy to predict once you know they exist. January/February and then again in late August through September are two big ones — winter clothes get hit with a slew of markdowns before they’re caught up in JC’s spring promotions. Summer stuff is the same way when it gets swallowed up by back-to-school sales.
And the bigger-city J Crew locations that aren’t in upscale neighborhoods seem to have the best prices for this kinda thing. The Michigan Avenue store has always been solid, but I’ve had much better luck in their outlet mall stores. Maybe it’s because they move higher volume there, so less time for things to go stale on racks and get multiple layers of markdown stickers.
The biggest score I’ve found was a Wallace & Barnes wool shirt jacket ticketed at $189.99 (reduced from $298) that rang up at $97. My sales lady couldn’t believe it either, but she honored the register. Throw it over jeans or khakis, dress it up with a button down and nice pants, it’s been one of the most-worn items in my closet since I found it. Perfect weight for Chicago’s fickle fall weather.
I’m certainly not violent about it. I won’t go into a store ripping stickers off things like some damn psychopath. But if I’m browsing and see something with an interesting price tag and multiple layers of stickers poking out I’ll politely ask any sales associate within eyeshot: “Do you mind scanning this and seeing what it rings up at?”’
“I know sometimes the register price is different than what the tag says.”
Hell man, I KNOW. Ask me about it.
They always scan it. Most sales associates know about this weird crap their price system does. They WANT you to scan first because the price is confusing enough as it is. Don’t make them run things back later at checkout. Just ask. And if they’ve been working there for a while, they can probably tell you which jackets/books/etc. are most likely to have system/tag differences because they’ve seen it happen before.
Oh, and double bonus if you’re shopping during one of their “take X percent off your entire purchase” promotions. Sometimes the system price gets adjusted based on what the computer thinks that item is currently costing, not what the tag says. So that $49 shirt that’s ringing at $32? Get ready for that $32 to be 40% off, NOT the $49.99 the sticker says.
You do run into things that ring up exactly at the tag price more times than not. And sometimes you’ll find something so good the system price is actually higher than the tag (!!!). But when you find it? Wow.
Side note: I’ve run into this at Banana Republic before too, though not as frequently. Sometimes at their factory outlets as well. And Madewell does the same thing, which makes sense — they own J.Crew so same parenting style probably.
J.Crew wins for consistency, though. In my experience they have the best hidden discounts because of the number of promotions and sales they run that overlap each other.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they fix this some day. Retail software probably costs billions to upgrade at this point and they’ll “streamline” it so this never happens again.
Until then…I’ll keep taking things to the register. Checking price tags for shredded edges that reveal multiple-colored stickers underneath. Quietly asking sales associates “what’s this ringing at?” when I see something that looks promising.
It’s become second nature at this point. See something cute in the sale section? Price check it.
That navy blazer I told you about at the beginning? Still lives in my closet, still gets compliments every time I wear it to work. Cost me $67.50 instead of $248, so it might have the best cost-per-wear of any item in my wardrobe right now. And every time I slip it on I’m reminded of how sometimes the best deals in life are hiding right under your nose. Literally. people cherish their sons above all others,
190:and my sister is no exception. She has three sons.
191: Is there anything wrong with men wanting to have sons?”
192:”No,” replied Asita. “That is natural.”
193: Ananda then said to Asita, “Do you know what we think?
194:Your sister has three sons. Therefore we think
195:that you cherish your nephews.”
196:Asita smiled at Ananda. He said,
197: “Although we both love sons and nephews, we differ somewhat.
198: Those of you who love sons will have them taken away from you;
199: whereas I who loves nephews will never be parted from them.”
200:”Teacher,” Ananda asked, “how come?”
201: The Blessed One replied, “Because Ananda loves sons,
202: when his sons depart from him he will still be sorrowful.
203: But I love nephews; my nephews are the noble disciples,
204:who have attained to Arahantship. They will never be parted from me,
205: for they have gone to the Further Shore where they will never die.”
206:– The Discourse on Asita’s Happiness Ends —
207:Thus has it been heard by me.
208: A certain Bhikkhu addressed the Blessed One thus:
209: “Lord, is there anything wrong with men having children?”
210:”Yes,” replied the Blessed One.
211:”Why is that? Lord.”
212: “Because of birth there is grief, lamentation, pain,
213:sorrow and despair. Therefore a man should not have children.”
214: “Lord, even if one should have children,” continued the Bhikkhu,
215: “even if children cause one grief, lamentation, pain,
216:sorrow and despair. Is there anything wrong with having children?”
217:”Yes,” said the Blessed One.
218:”Why is that Lord?”
219:”Because it still causes heedlessness. Listen Bhikkhu,
220:a parable.
221: A man is cooking some rice and happens to drop
222:a grain of rice on the ground. So he picks it up and throws it away.
223: Because he dropped it on the ground where animals tread,
224:therefore he threw it away. Likewise again Bhikkhu,
225: a man is cooking rice but does not drop any grain.
226: Though he did not drop any grain he still throws it away.
227:Why is that? This rice was cooked by a foolish man.
228: Though it did not drop on the ground where animals tread,
229:still this rice is devoid of nourishment.
230:Therefore he threw it away.
231: In the same way Bhikkhu, even though one should have children,
232:though children may cause grief, lamentation, pain,
233: sorrow and despair; if for the sake of children one does not practise righteousness,
234:then that person is called a fool. Since his children are born devoid of morality,
235:therefore they are born useless.
236:”Do you understand Bhikkhu?”
237:The Bhikkhu replied, “Yes Lord, I understand.”
238: Knowing he understood, the Blessed One said no more.
