A question that I have been getting fairly often lately, is “what do you actually do when you walk into a store?” This is a good question, and one that I will go into a little bit of detail with this post.  For today’s post I will focus on selling clearance items on amazon and, more specifically, how I go about FBA sourcing at Target to acquire those items. In reality, the strategy I outline here holds true for the majority of stores that I go into.

First off, I am looking for items that meet the Amazon purchasing guidelines I use for sourcing items to sell.

Finding Items on Target

The first thing I do when walking into a Target is grab a shopping cart. This may seem obvious, but I am going in with the intention of buying items to resell (and hopefully a lot of them) so a cart is essential.

Once I get my cart I generally look through the various clearance sections throughout the store.  Target generally has clearance items on the end caps of aisles, and they have a “clearance” sign above the end cap. This is generally where the clearance is, but sometimes it will be mixed in with the normal items.  I will quickly walk by the end caps and look for the clearance throughout the store, and whenever I get to one that has clearance, I will stop and look items up on my phone to determine if they are worth buying to resell.  My favorite sections to find clearance items in are in the toys and electronics sections.

After going through these sections, I will quickly walk through some of the other aisles in the store as time permits to look for other deals that may present resale opportunities.  One example of this from about a week and a half ago was a deal where if you buy one Nerf gun you would get the second half off.  There were some Nerf guns that were already on sale prior to this deal, so with the buy one get one 50% off, it was over 50% off of retail.  When the prices are this low, it can present an opportunity for resale.

As I go through the aisles looking for sales, I also keep an eye out for Target “exclusive” items.  These are items that are carried only at target, and will generally have a sticker on them that says “only at Target” or something similar.  The main reason for looking up these items is that amazon will not be able to be a seller for this item.  Since amazon is not a seller, the price is set by 3rd party sellers who are able to source at Target.  There are times when these exclusive items sell for 3 times or more the list price at Target.

These are the main steps that I take when looking for items to resell at Target, but there is one more important thing to do.  If I find an item that is good for resale and I want to buy more than are on the shelf, I will ask an employee if there are more in the back.  Often times there are, and in some locations if they don’t have more they will be able to tell you if stores nearby have the item in stock, and how many they have.

Also, you should keep in mind that Target stores often have the same clearance items, so if you find a good item in one, there is a decent chance that you could find the same item in another.

Lastly, Target follows a predetermined markdown schedule. You can find out more by doing a few google searches, but in general items go from 30% off to 50% off to 70% off.  So the longer they are sitting in a clearance section the cheaper the item gets.  I also know that at the Target nearest me that electronics are marked down on Mondays, so that is often a day that I will go looking for clearance.  If you ask an employee, they should be able to tell you the markdown schedule for their stores.

This is what I do when I go into Target stores to look for items to resell.  Let me know in the comments if you have other ideas to add!

P.S. – Sales have been going crazy for me in December, so I hope they have for you as well.  I will get back to posting on a more regular schedule after the Christmas season.  You may also be wondering what the picture has to do with the post, and the answer is not too much, I just like that picture. Thanks for reading!