Walmart Hidden Clearance

We are not Walmart shoppers. As a matter of fact, there is a Walmart less than 5 minutes from my house and we will go months at a time without stepping foot inside. Why? Because Walmart has the marketing game completely figured out. You can NOT walk into Walmart consistently and only walk out with the 1 or 2 items you came for. So we just stay away, until recently.

You see every now and then we would run across a great deal like kids underwear for my son for $1 a pack or boots for my daughter for $3. We thought it was sheer luck until we found out about the Walmart Hidden Clearance deals from BrodieSaves. Then we became curious…

What is Walmart Hidden or Secret Clearance?

At the end of every product season, Walmart clears out the old stuff to prepare for the new. As the average consumer, we typically see this on the long aisles marked clearance in a specific section of the store or even specially marked items on the shelves.

When these items don’t sell or the store needs to liquidate for a pretty quick turnaround, they will drop the prices on these items (and more) drastically, however they don’t always get around to changing the price tags. This is why it is called “hidden clearance”. What you seen on the tag is not necessarily what you will pay at the register.

Many hidden clearance shoppers have found items like perfumes & makeup for 3 cents (yes you read that right), comforter sets for $7, espresso makers for $15 and school supplies for 15 cents. These price drops can be found in an department and not all items are even marked with a clearance tag. Some may be in rightful home on the shelf with a full price tag.

How do I find hidden clearance items?

Since most items are not marked before they are gone, it really is a game to find these items. To help with that there are a few different tools that we personally use.

Facebook

As you know, there is a Facebook group for everything and hidden clearance is no different. There are lots of fantastic groups of dedicated Walmart deal seekers that are willing to share their knowledge and wins. My favorite group, Walmart Clearance Shoppers was created by The Freebie Guy and has around 1.2 million members.

This group typically posts the images in the store with price signage, screenshots of the deals, sku/upc codes and receipts, so you know exactly what to look for. And with this many members in the group, someone is bound to post the deals that you can find in your area at some point. I actually ran into 2 members of this group during my grill haul and we were helping each other out. We all walked out with amazing deals and no drama.

BrickSeek

BrickSeek is an extremely popular website when looking for Walmart secret/hidden clearance. The reason most deal seekers use BrickSeek is for the inventory checker. This feature of the website, allows you to enter a UPC or SKU along with your zip code. It will then return not only which stores in your area carry the product but the current price of that product in each store.

With both free & paid versions of this site, this is the go-to for most deal seekers as it allows you to see what is in the store without having to go to the store. While the free version allows you to look up specific UPC/SKU numbers for various stores, the paid tiers also include the best deals in your area.

I followed my favorite items on BrickSeek and when they dropped, it was a good indication that other items in the store would also be reduced. It actually worked out this way for me this time around, but I am not sure if I will also be so lucky.

There were previous times, early in our clearance hunting that BrickSeek would show one price for a item for an item or that there was lots of stock however when we arrived at the store, we either couldn’t find the item or it wasn’t marked down. Mostly, it was the previous, which we figured out was due to lack of staff, so there was lots of overstock in the backroom.

Walmart Scan and Go

When it comes to looking up prices in-store, there are different methods. Most people will turn to the normal Walmart app which has a scanner feature. When you scan the item in store, it will show you the price, location of the item in the store and allow you to purchase the item online.

Walmart Plus, the paid service for Walmart, has a scanning feature as well called Scan and Go. This allows you to scan your in-store items while you are shopping and check out with ease.

Why Scan & Go over the Walmart app?

The great thing about Scan and Go is that, because it allows you to check out, the prices are connected directly to the store system. This means as soon as the prices are marked down in the register, it is reflected it the Scan and Go prices, even if the price tag on the shelf hasn’t been changed. The Walmart app doesn’t reflect the price changes as quickly since it is connected to the online system.

Best Deals/Our Wins

After learning about Walmart hidden clearance, we decided to test the waters and see what we could find. It seems that there were lots of deals to be scored as we saw the wins in the Facebook group, and it seemed to be the same things in each store, so off to Walmart we went. Yet, the prices hadn’t seemed to drop. I found a few random items, like hair gel and a single bath bomb at 3 cents each but nothing like everyone else was finding.

Yet, we didn’t give up hope. There was one thing that really caught our attention on the Facebook boards, grills! People across the country were getting grills for super cheap and it was time to replace ours. So periodically, we would go into the store and just scan the grills. A few weeks in, there was a small price drop but no where near the numbers we were looking for.

We came to the justification that our summer season was a little longer than other parts of the country since we live near the beach and it stays warmer a little larger. After Labor Day had to be the right time. So right after the holidays, we really hunkered down but the prices still didn’t drop. However, we did notice that there were pallets of stock all around the store that included all types of toys and summer items…and the staff was starting to put out Christmas stock. The time had to be near, and we were right.

One random Tuesday morning around 7 am, I checked BrickSeek for the same grill I had been checking every other day. This was a double grill with gas and pellets, originally $697, and it was showing up for $190. I immediately hopped in the car and ran 5 minutes down the road. Just as I was having the staff pull down the grill, another clearance seeker showed up with his scan and go. Together, we started scanning and comparing. This was just the beginning.

The manager was going through the store marking down what seemed like everything. We noticed people in different parts of the store grabbing awesome deals from sheets to toys. Since we couldn’t fit everything in one trip, I went back around noon to pick up the rest of our haul and the manager was working with the staff to unpack pallets and they were handing out deeply discounted items as they were coming out of the boxes. These were the same pallets we had seen having out around the store in our previous visits.

While we got the big deals that morning with grills, lot of people snagged amazing deals all day long!

OUTDOOR

Cuisinart Twin Oak Pellet and Gas Grill
original price: $697 we paid: $190

Blackstone 28″ Griddle with Air Fryer
original price: $599 we paid: $100

Expert Grill 28″ Pioneer Portable Griddle
original price: $184 we paid: $45

Mainstays Patio Heater
original price: $149 we paid: $50

Mainstays Fire Pit
original price: $147 we paid: $50

Better Homes & Gardens Barrel Planter
original price: $11 we paid: $1

Keter 120 Gallon Deck Box
original price: $179 we paid: $50

Deck Box
original price: $129 we paid: $25

HEALTH & BEAUTY

Eucerin Age Defense Sunscreen
original price: $14.50 we paid: $2.50

Kleen Vitamin C Serum
original price: $8.95 we paid: $1

Kleen Blue Light Serum
original price: $6.99 we paid: $1

HOME

Sheet Set
original price: $35 we paid $7

Volleyball Set
original price: $64.97 we paid: $20 — then $10 — then $5!

Melissa and Doug Blues Clues Wooden Puzzle
original price $21.49 we paid: 50 cents

Based on looking at the history in the Walmart Facebook group, these seems to happen throughout the year, based on the cycle of the product grouping. There tends to be a large clearance during the seasonal switchover with smaller clearance events throughout the year.

Want to try it out?

1. Follow the Facebook groups and use BrickSeek.
2. Take a walk through your local Walmart and use Scan & Go to check the items you have seen in the groups.
3. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Don’t get discouraged.
4. When you see it, grab it.
5. If one thing drops, the other things may have as well.
6. Have fun. Think of it more as a game than anything. Yes, you are getting good deals but nothing is guaranteed.