We all know that the days and weeks following Christmas are a great time to stock up on heavily discounted wrapping paper and gift bags. But if you head to Walmart this week, you have a very good chance of snagging everything from cookware to bedding on sale. Budget shopping influencer Star Smith (@couponwithstar) recently shared a video on TikTok about how you can score clearance items up to 90 percent off at Walmart right now—if you know where to look.
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The secret way to find clearance items at Walmart.
“The key to clearance shopping at Walmart is to stay out of the clearance section and to walk your store,” advises Smith.
She says that around this time of year, you’ll want to be on the lookout for holiday-related items, many of which you can use year-round. Then, simply use the Walmart+ app to scan the items and see what they ring up as—even if they’re not visibly marked down on the shelf.
For example, she found a two-pack of green muffin pans that is normally $10 marked down to $2.49, as well as green, red, or ivory king-sized faux shearling blankets marked down from $19 to $5.
However, Smith assured shoppers that even though these prices are good, in the coming days, all of these items are likely to get marked down by 90 percent.
Her “big find” of the day was a Nespresso Virtuo Plus machine, which is regularly priced at $159.
“They had these marked down in my store for $79 last week because they’ve come out with a newer model,” Smith shared. She held out, though, and when she scanned the bar code using her Walmart+ app this week, they were just $20, a savings of 87 percent.
Do note that these prices will vary by store and aren’t reflected online. (At the time of writing, the Nespresso machine was on sale for only $139.30 on the Walmart website.)
RELATED: 5 Unexpected Freebies Included in Your Walmart+ Membership.
There are more ways to find hidden clearance items at Walmart.
If you take Smith’s advice and peruse the aisles at your local Walmart, don’t forget to look up at the top shelves.
As Best Lifeshared last year, both Walmart and Target stash unmarked clearance items on the top shelf. Most people assume this is just overflow merchandise, but shopping influencers regularly use the stores’ apps to scan these items, finding major markdowns.
TikToker @that_coupon_chick has had many videos about Walmart’s “hidden clearance” go viral. She explains that her method is to walk up and down the aisles and scan items that already have clearance stickers on them. “I will scan those and see if they come up a lower price, and if they do, then I’ll go and scan more items in that section,” she shares.
In many of her videos, she notes that her trick for pinpointing hidden clearance is to look for items that seem out of place. Perhaps there’s a clothing item that comes in several patterns, but one pattern has only a few left. Or, in the laundry aisle, there are washing machine pods displayed among regular liquid detergent. But again, these deals only hold up in stores, not online.