On July 17th the sale of all sales, the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, kicks off to the general public. If you are a Nordstrom card holder it started last week. What are you waiting for? For those of you who couldn't get in early to shop, you can still get a sneak peek at all the amazing items that are on sale at prices so low they are practically giving the stuff away. Keep in mind everything will go fast and the sale only lasts until August 2nd.
What sets this sale apart from most store sales is that the items are primarily things for the upcoming season, not this season's leftovers that they are begging you to take off their hands so they can make room for new inventory. There is so much brilliance to this strategy.
For starters, this sale comes at a time when we're starting to itch for new. Sure, nobody really wants to think about coats and cashmere sweaters right now, however, this is also the time when our summer clothes start to feel a bit dull. Plus, by this time nobody is really thinking about purchasing more of what they are already wearing. What they have will probably suffice for the rest of the summer. It's time to think about fall....believe it or not.
The other smart move about this sale is Nordstrom steeply discounts new arrivals which is normally the exact opposite approach to sales. Typically, items go on sale after they have sat around for a while. How many times have waited to see if something will ever go on sale before you buy it? A sense of urgency is created with this anniversary sale. Get it now before it is too late and you have to pay more!
With the prices and the newness, it can be all too easy to fall into the trap of making haphazard purchases, to get lured in by the rock bottom prices and to go hog-wild. With all this in mind, in addition to sharing my shopping picks from the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale below, I am also giving you eight tips for being a master sale shopper between each of my selections. Remember, sales are fun as long as you shop responsibly. To shop for any of my anniversary sale picks, just click the link that corresponds to each numbered piece in the photo above it.
Smart Sale Shopping Tip #1- Make a plan
As you may know, my mother is a serious sale shopper, as evidenced in this YouTube video, and this followup, I recorded with her. In both videos she shares her tips on how she gets just about everything on sale plus how she smartly goes about it. One of the tips is she always thinks ahead. She knows what she has coming up in the next week, month and even six months. Start with this easy tip. What do you have coming up that you need to be prepared for? Make your plan and stick with it.
In addition to this, when was the last time took a look at your fall wardrobe? Going through your fall clothes before you hit the sale is smart. There are likely things that need to be replaced and classifications that need to be refreshed. Get a list together before you hit the "add to cart" button.
Smart Sale Shopping Tip #1- Use the Cost-Per-Wear-Equation to avoid impulse buys
If you're not familiar with the cost-per-wear equation, it is a simple math formula you can use to calculate the value of an item you want to purchase. This formula is particularly helpful with investment buys where the cost up front is a lot. Take the cost of a pair of tailored pants for $300, for example. That might be a lot of money. However, if the pants are basic enough, and you see yourself wearing them at least once a week for a year, the cost-per-wear of those pants is just $5.76. That number is much more palatable.
Yet, to get the full concept of this approach, try using the cost-per-wear formula on sale items where the prices are too good to be true. Let's say you buy a shirt that was $89 and now costs $25 on sale. Wow, that's more than a 50% discount! You can't beat it, right? Well, not so fast. You buy the shirt simply because the price was amazing and you wind up wearing it twice before it dies a slow death in the back of your closet. Take $25 and divide that shirt by two, for those two times you actually wore it. The shirt cost you $12.50 per wear. Sure the price tag might say it's a great value but if it is of no use to you if you don't wear it. Those $300 pants are a much better value.
Smart Sale Shopping Tip #3- Don't split your wears
Splitting your wears is a concept I came up with through my client work and it's one I have explained in this blog before. Basically, splitting your wears means to have multiples in your closet that serve the same function and, therefore, the use for an item like this gets spread over multiple pieces which diminishes the value of each one. The less you have for each function you need the more use each piece in your closet will get.
I will use this analogy I came up with this morning while walking in my neighborhood to further explain. As I was walking by a building under construction I laughed to myself wondering if we were going to get, yet another, nail salon in the neighborhood. It seems like daily a new one pops us. Given the fact that where I live you can't swing a dead cat without hitting one of these places, if you were to open a business in my neighborhood would you really want to open another one? Not if you want to be successful. With a salon on just about every street corner the customer base is way too thin to really get any return on your business venture, just like adding a fifth black blazer to your wardrobe just isn't smart shopping sense. You'll never get a return on your investment because you already own too many. This is what it means to split your wears. No matter how cheap it is, if you own too many of the same thing the sale price will never be equal to the value for you.
Smart Sale Shopping Tip #4- Don't Wishful Wardrobe
Wishful Wardrobing is a term I use to describe when a person buys clothes for the life they wish they had, not the one they actually do. How many times have you practically salivated over the perfect pair of 4″ pumps or spaghetti strap dress that you can't wear with a bra? When this happens you have to take a few breaths. Finding something attractive, gorgeous or even a must-have isn't enough for you to actually purchase it. You have to make sure you'll wear it. Doing this does require a bit of tough love but, trust me, it will pay off. Because, really, what's more depressing, not buying something or buying it and never wearing it?
And don't make stuff up just to buy it. Look at your life realistically. Think that jumpsuit is super cute, but you have a toddler and to be able to pee quickly, sometimes with your baby on your hip in a public restroom? A jumpsuit is probably not for you. Live in NYC and walk to work most days? Four inch heels are likely out of the question. Buying those expensive yoga pants for a class you still haven't taken? You get the point. During sale times it is so easy to wishful wardrobe just to justify a purchase.
Smart Sale Shopping Tip #5- Where are you going in that?
Early on in my career, a client called me out for always saying "Where are you going in that?" whenever we'd go shopping or edit her closet. Had she not said something I probably wouldn't have realized how often I said it. If you are a client of mine you have heard me say this at least once because it is, by far, the simplest and easiest way to get yourself from stepping away from anything you just don't need.
It can be hard to walk away from something that is drop dead gorgeous once you try it on. But sale or not, money is money and I think I have already been abundantly clear on the lack of value a sale item has if you don't wear it. Therefore, if you try something on, I don't care how amazing you look, ask yourself, "Where am I going in this?" If you can't come up with at least one place where you will wear it, it doesn't belong in your closet. And don't start wishful wardrobing just to come up with reasons to buy it.
Smart Sale Shopping Tip #6- Grab it all and then edit
Restriction often just makes us want more. It's no different than going on a diet and the world suddenly looking like one giant chocolate glazed doughnut. If we can't do something or feel restrained, psychologically, it becomes more appealing. So I am going to give you this tip: go crazy and add all the things you discover on sale to your shopping cart...or dressing room if you are shopping in the stores.
Here's why.
During sales you need to give yourself permission to be like a kid in a candy store. If you go into it, instead, with a restrictive mindset everything you see during the sale is going to look amazing. Peruse the sale items on the website or at the store and add them all. If you like it, add it. I don't care if you have 500 things in your shopping cart when you are done. Get it out of your system, go nuts, be free, feel the liberation.
Now, before you hit the checkout button it's time to edit. You have let your inner child loose and now it is time to put your adult hat on. You obviously can't buy it all, nor should you want to. When I shop with clients I always pull an entire clothing rack of selections for them to try on. On the first pass we just separate the duds from the contenders. We don't even acknowledge the price of the potentials yet. At this point we're just weeding out the losers. After we have our selections of possible buys, we cull through everything again and we continue culling, over and over, until we have a tight selection of what's going home. Sometimes my clients have to bid farewell to great things, but using the shopping tips I shared above, like wishful wardrobing, splitting wears and "where are you going in that?" we eventually get the selections down to a size that makes sense and works for their budgets.
My advice to you is to go into this sale with a set budget of what you want to spend. On your first pass, add everything you like to your cart or dressing room and then, after you have weeded out the duds, keep culling until you have the very best selections for your budget.
Smart Sale Shopping Tip #7- Don't start an orphanage in your closet
All across this great country of ours clothing has been abandoned. They're alone, in need of support and will likely perish, price tags still attached, if something isn't done. Please don't turn your closet into an orphanage that is filled with these stray cast-offs that you can't wear because you have nothing to wear with them.
Never have I bought anything without full knowledge of what I am going to wear with it. Because I run a pretty tight ship with my wardrobe, I usually can be pretty quick to figure out what exactly I will wear with something once I bring it home. Before you hit the sale, go through your closet and grab your orphans and figure out what you need to make them work. Additionally, when shopping, don't purchase it if you don't now what you will do with it.
1. Theory 'Emery 2′ Wool Blend Pants 2. Vince Camuto Straight Leg Pants 3. Lyssé Seamed Ponte Knit Control Top Leggings 4. Jolt Utility Jogger Pants 5. T Tahari 'Bruna' Ankle Pants
Smart Sale Shopping Tip #8- Let's get serious about sale shopping
Sale shopping can be all fun and games until it becomes a serious problem. Just about every fashion blogger on the planet is promoting and capitalizing on the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, and for good reason. The sale is amazing. However, while it's not my responsibility to police the behaviors of all of you wonderful readers, I do feel it's important to offer some resources if your shopping has gotten out of control. I really hate to be a buzzkill but I also wouldn't peddle heroin in front of a rehab clinic.
First, Dr. April Benson is a is a nationally known psychologist who specializes in the treatment of compulsive buying disorder. She has been in private practice in New York City for over 35 years and is the author of To Buy or Not to Buy: Why We Overshop and How to Stop and editor of I Shop, Therefore I Am: Compulsive Buying and the Search for Self. Dr. Benson has also published chapters in several professional books and is currently engaged in empirical research into the efficacy of the Stopping Overshopping model of treatment.
Next, Jill Chivers, a former shopaholic, has a program called My Year Without Clothes Shopping that she started after a 12 month challenge to shop her wardrobe and not clothes shop for one year. During this time it gave her the space to explore the many facets of shopping, consumption, style, identity, expression... and so many other related topics. Her year without clothes shopping changed her and it can change you too.
Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn't mention my good friend, and client, Debbie Roes, of Recovering Shopaholic. Another great gal in recovery, who started her blog because she was tired of all the lying and hiding about her addiction and was truly ready to become a recovering shopaholic. She started blogging as a way of keeping herself honest, as well as to connect with others who wishes to recover and trade their full closets for even fuller lives.
1. Halogen Seamed Pencil Skirt 2. Halogen Back Zip Stripe Ponte Pencil Skirt 3. Milly Dot Tweed Mini Skirt 4. Lafayette 148 'Velma' Pencil Skirt 5. Topshop Button Front Denim Skirt
Sales are fun and shopping them is a fantastic way to get things you need at a great price. In fact, my husband, who was in desperate need of new work shoes, scooped up two new pairs, originally $99 each (already a steal), for $109 for both pairs. We practically skipped out of the store when we realized all the money we saved. So don't miss out on the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. As long as you keep these tips in mind I think you'll save money and get great value from it.
Happy shopping!
