Target Tuesday

Whaddya know, I'm sticking with something and I'm doing another Target Tuesday! Here's the idea: I visit my favorite store and browse the aisles looking for inspiration, great deals, and sometimes even not-so-great Target fails. Read below to see what I found this week and check out the end of the post for insider Target tips!

Today I checked out the Super Target at Coit and Campbell, closest to my house. This is an area that I think we will really enjoy being close to. There are a ton of mainstream stores like HomeGoods, Marshalls, Home Depot, and Tom Thumb in the area. Plus, the area looks like it  is a newer development (within the last 10 or 15 years) and hasn't seemed to be TOO busy and hectic. 

This Target has been updated on the outside, but I was a little disappointed with the dated interior, plus it had a weird smell. Let's hope they get that worked out! 

 Let's start in the bathroom. Mark and I will have 'separate' bathrooms, meaning I have the half bath in the master bedroom and he has the full bath down the hall. Of course, I will have to use the shower there too! 

We are seriously lacking in the bathroom accessories department. Not surprisingly, there isn't a huge pull for accessories on the wedding registry, so we received one piece of a bathroom set for our wedding. Add to that our $2 Wal-Mart toothbrush holder, and you have our entire bathroom collection. I was LOVING these cute accessories at Target. I could see the gold or silver metallic accessories in my bath, couldn't you? I might have to wait for a sale, though. Those are priced a little high!

 These blue sea glass canisters were sweet, too.

I REALLY liked these bronze and glass accessories for Mark's bath. That bathroom, mentioned here, is mostly covered in grey and white tile, bead board, and trim and we painted the walls navy blue. The blue really makes the bathroom read as traditional, but I want to throw in some simple accessories to make it more 'industrial' feeling rather than traditional. I'll share the before and after photos when it's finished and you can let me know how I did! 

I thought these were cool industrial and manly looking towels. Mark and I both have a thing for stripes, so I think he would like these!

For my bathroom, I would just go with simple, plush white towels. I love the way they pop off colored walls and also make the bathroom feel airy and spa-like. 

Now here's an insider tip...Everyone knows that Target has sales, right? Well, there is a method to their madness...

First of all, Target has a schedule of when they markdown certain departments. I wish I could say I had studied Target's patterns and that's how I knew about the schedule, but I just got lucky one day and read a Yahoo! article about it. Here is a website showing the whole schedule. I tend to focus on my trips on Wednesday because that's the day after Pets, Women's Clothing, and Domestics get marked down. Friday is a good day too, when Housewares goes on sale!

Another tip is to do a sweep of the whole store if you are just looking to score good deals. Target, and other stores, have 'end caps' on the end of each aisle where they typically put feature items like Nate Berkus and others in order to grab the customers attention. Those features are usually in the main aisles, so you see them when you walk by. The end caps that back up to a wall, however, are not as effective as selling feature items. So, this is where a lot of 'mass sale' items go. There is typically no rhyme or reason to what ends up where, so it is good to scan the whole store to see if there is something of interest hiding in automotive. 

An end cap in the furniture section with a random assortment of sale items.

For example, I found this super cute diaper stacker on an end cap in the furniture section. It looks like it was an online item, so it's rare that you would even be able to find something like this in a normal circumstance. 

Look at that price! It was $22 online, but was marked down to $5.56. I wish I knew someone with a yellow and grey room to whom I could have gifted this! Mark, although, will be glad to know that I didn't buy it. 

Another tip that I wish I would have gotten a photo of is the price discount code on the red stickers. The item above had different information on the sticker because it was an online item. Ordinarily, there would be a number on the top right corner of the sticker that shows what the discount is. It will say "30", "50" "75", etc. I believe Target marks things down as low as 80%. Also, since you know they mark things down weekly, it's a pretty safe bet if something is only marked down 30% one week and there are more than, say, 3 items left, it will be marked down again next week. They continue to mark items down until they sell. 

It's simple - a little thought can save you a lot of money at Target. Try going on markdown days when you are looking for something in particular, and check the end caps and stickers. Let me know if you have any luck!