December 13, 2011
As promised here are some of the places to look for bargains:
- The clearance section of big box home improvement stores. My Home Depot has two end caps and often discounts pallets of flooring back in the flooring section in addition to having some lesser bargains up front.
- Warehouse clubs like Sam’s or Costco you would be surprised at what they carry for instance Sam’s has a dual flush toilet for $99 and laminate flooring for $1.43 a square foot.
- On-line specialty stores especially for things that are manufactured overseas and purchased in bulk like door hardware.
- Amazon.com sells everything and you can compare prices for what you’re looking for on one site.
- Ebay, I never would have thought of this but Mark told me about it. You can score some great deals if you hone your auction skills.
In addition to knowing where to look for bargains you also need to know how to score bargains. Here are my top tips to secure a bargain:
- Know what you’re looking for and what the retail price is. You won’t be able to recognize a bargain if you don’t know the average sales price. Also, don’t believe the list price, you see this all over list price $349.99 our price $99. That’s not necessarily a bargain if you can buy it somewhere else for $98.
- Always add tax and shipping to the price before you decide if it’s a bargain. If you’re buying a faucet that’s $15 less online than in the store but you’re paying $20 in shipping you’re not saving money.
- Get on mailing lists of stores you frequent. For instance, my local Sears store just had a “friends and family” sale. Kenmore appliances were 15% off, using my Sears card netted me 10% off, and the “friends and family” sale was worth another 15%. I was able to pick up a self-cleaning smooth top range, a tall tub quiet dishwasher, and an over the range microwave, all in stainless steel for under $1,000, delivery and cords and connections included. Not bad huh? All that just for one more piece of e-mail in my inbox.
- Know your return policies. One of the easiest ways to save money on a job is to buy slightly more of something than you need in order to avoid your crew running out of material and having to stop the job to pick something else up. This will save you even more money if once a week you gather everything up that wasn’t used and you actually return it to the store. Plumbing and finish carpentry are two areas where this strategy really pays off.
- If you see a bargain buy it. Buy it right then if you have a job to use it on and it looks like a great deal you have to buy it because it won’t be there later. I’m still smarting over the pallet of tile for .19 a square foot that I didn’t buy. If you’re going to stay in this business you will always need a nice neutral 12X12 tile. I should have bought it…but I decided I’d think about it while I finished my shopping, by the time I made it from the front of the store to the back of the store it was sold.
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