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" Everywhere you look these days, sale signs are wallpapering store windows, and e-mail accounts and mailboxes are being deluged with special-discount coupons. &amp;quot;Chalk it all up to retailers&amp;#039; anxiety. They&amp;#039;re nervously tossing out promotions to lure reluctant consumers back to the checkout counter,&amp;quot; explains Erin Armendinger, managing director of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania&amp;#039;s Wharton School. But if you feel overwhelmed and want to know the most important bargain-shopping rules for this turbulent economy, here&amp;#039;s help. Try these five tactics for getting rock-bottom prices in the sea of sales: 1. Stack Discounts and Store Sales If you&amp;#039;re not combining retailer sales with a print coupon, Web code, or other discount, you&amp;#039;re probably not getting the most for your money. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve never seen so many deals on in-season clothing,&amp;quot; says Kim McGowan, founder of the sale-tracking site markdownalert.com. Make sure you&amp;#039;re maximizing discount potential by searching the Internet for your favorite retailers and &amp;quot;coupon&amp;quot; before hitting the mall or shopping online, she says. For fast hunting, bookmark retailmenot.com, couponcabin.com, and \u2014 of course \u2014 Good Housekeeping&amp;#039;s Good Deals Blog as your go-to sites for the best of currently available coupons. One example of this strategy put into practice: Kohl&amp;#039;s was recently having a sale on bath rugs, with a $30 striped mat marked down to $15; by using an additional 30-percent-off coupon, it could be nabbed for just $10.50.  Save bigger: It also helps if you&amp;#039;re on the store&amp;#039;s frequent-shopper mailing and e-mail lists, says Jackie Pobiega. The Charlotte, NC, resident saved 50 percent on new outfits for her kids earlier this year after receiving advance notice of a sale at her local outlet mall. &amp;quot;You can always unsubscribe if the e-mails don&amp;#039;t suit your needs or become annoying,&amp;quot; she says. Just be careful that they don&amp;#039;t lure you into buying more than you really need. 2. Shop in High-Income Zip Codes Avid thrift store customers know to head to shops in the fancier parts of town. There, you&amp;#039;re more likely to find well-known brands and good-quality clothing, furniture, and other items at a discount, says Cindy Chapman, a spokeswoman for the social-networking site momslikeme.com. (The deal hunter, based in Minneapolis, confesses to having a closetful of designer cashmere sweaters plucked from the $1.49 bargain bin.) In New York City, designers \u2014 such as Marc Jacobs \u2014 and retailers donate some of their inventory from seasons past to nonprofit Housing Works, which uses the proceeds from its chain of thrift shops to fight AIDS and homelessness. And practically every city has thrift stores that sell kids&amp;#039; clothes and gear; the ones in tony areas can yield great buys and high quality. 3. Learn the Sales Cycle Retailers have specific days when they put out new stock and mark down merchandise, so ask the next time you&amp;#039;re in the store and then sync up your shopping with its schedule. For instance, Chapman notes that her local Gap Outlet store seems to mark down merchandise like clockwork on Wednesday evenings \u2014 yielding racks and racks of freshly discounted apparel for Thursday&amp;#039;s shoppers. Many retailers move merchandise to the sale rack within six weeks of the time it first shows up on shelves. And at liquidation sales, the key date to ask about is closing. &amp;quot;Liquidation sales do offer good deals, but only right before the store shuts down for good,&amp;quot; says Monica Pedersen, a designer for HGTV&amp;#039;s Designed to Sell. At that point, you can reap savings of 75 percent off or better. Tip for thrift store shoppers: Most people don&amp;#039;t have time to clean out their closets and drop off unwanted goods at thrift stores until the weekend, reasons Jennifer Sheran of Snellville, GA. That&amp;#039;s why she visits on Tuesdays, when new merchandise fills the racks and the store is less crowded. 4. Weigh How You Pay Know when to pony up the cash and when to rely on plastic; it usually depends on where you&amp;#039;re shopping. At thrift shops, cash is typically the best option, says Pedersen. Stores may be willing to offer a discount in exchange for your helping them avoid the pricey merchant fees on credit card transactions \u2014 but you probably won&amp;#039;t know that unless you ask. To negotiate, ask: &amp;quot;If I pay with cash, might I be able to get a discount?&amp;quot; But definitely stick with a credit card for liquidators and other places where sales are final, cautions Edgar Dworsky, founder of consumerworld.org, a consumer resource guide. &amp;quot;Sometimes you can&amp;#039;t tell anything is wrong with the item in the store,&amp;quot; he says. Many stores don&amp;#039;t allow you to open product boxes or test items before taking them home; there have been horror stories stemming from going-out-of-business sales, including that of a couple who were stuck with a smashed flat-screen TV after Circuit City&amp;#039;s closeout. When you pay with a credit card, the Fair Credit Billing Act gives you the right to dispute a charge for items that are not delivered as agreed. Many cards also offer helpful perks, says Dworsky. Most gold credit cards double the manufacturer&amp;#039;s warranty, adding up to another year of free protection. (And did you know that if you buy a product with the Good Housekeeping Seal and it proves defective, it&amp;#039;s Good Housekeeping, not the manufacturer, who replaces the item or refunds your money?) 5. Do Some Post-Purchase Research Once you&amp;#039;re home after making a major purchase, sign up for price-drop alerts through sites like priceprotectr.com. They can help you grab the onetime price adjustment many stores offer should the price you pay drop in the store or at a competitor shortly after purchase \u2014 so if you buy a TV for $349 and then the price goes down to $319 a week later, the store could reimburse you for the difference if it has such a policy. In this economy, that&amp;#039;s a move more and more retailers are willing to make. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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