How does Gap sales work?

[nicoleflynn]

Hi all, could somebody outline how Gap sales work? I had a friend who used to shop at Gap for her baby's clothes and she used to tell me that she buys her DDs clothes and when there is a sale, she gets price adjustment and it is supposed to be pretty cheap that way. I got an email today that says Gap fall sale started (not sure online or in store). The cashier told me that they have 10 day price adjustment policy. If it is only 10 days, does stuff get a lot cheaper in just 10 days? What is the best strategy to shop at Gap?

TIA. -Nicole.

[deborah_r]

Nicole,

Have you tried posting this question in the Reality Layette forum? If not I would recommend it, I think you would get a response there. I'm sorry, I don't know much about Gap sales, but I've wondered too what the trick is to getting good deals there!

[JacksMommy]

Nicole, the reason for price adjustments is that people get upset when they buy something at full price and then it goes on sale the next day. So a lot of places will offer price adjustments within a certain time frame. Gap is especially cool for that because they also offer price adjustments if the price you paid was already a sale price and the item was subsequently reduced whereas other stores may only adjust if you originally bought the item at full price.

Also, Gap does rotate it's merchandise pretty frequently, so there is a good chance that things you buy will go on sale within 10 days (dang, the period used to be two weeks, which was much easier to remember) - but there is certainly no guarantee of it. What I generally do is wait until the things I want are at a price that I'm okay with. Then I keep the receipt and check back before the price adjustment period ends, just in case they have been further reduced. But I wouldn't recommend paying more than you want to pay, in case that item doesn't go on sale soon enough. BTW, you can just bring the receipt in, you don't have to have the item with you. If you bought online, you can call them up and they will refund your credit card for the difference.

One nice thing to know is that Gap stores (at least in CA but I think nationwide) change their prices on Wednesdays. Online, they do it Wednesday or Thursday. So you don't need to bother checking for price drops until then.

HTH,

Laurel
Working Mama to Jack, 6/4/02
EDD #2 12/24/02

[Twin Mom]

At gap.com the price adjustment policy still shows as 14 days. My experience is that the Gap is much slower these days to do markdowns so many times I find that items do not get marked down within the 14 days. If the policy in stores has been changed to 10 days, it is going to be even harder to get additional markdowns. I actually made a comment to a salesperson one day (ok a nice complaint) about the lack of markdowns and he did confirm they are not doing them as frequently these days.

Boy do I miss the good old days when you had 30 days for adjustments :-( It was rare when you didn't get a price adjustment back then.

[hellokitty]

Aileen-

I also noticed that the markdowns haven't been as great as they were before. It seems like it stays at the same price for a longgg time now. So, I don't even both trying to get a price adjustment anymore, b/c it never seems to make a difference. I used to get really good deals too, DH and I practically switched our entire wardrobe to primarily gap stuff about 2 yrs ago, b/c the deals were so good and we lived in a hick town at the time, where ppl did not seem to buy that much gap stuff, so the clearance was GREAT!

[newyearsmom]

I just bought some stuff at Baby Gap on Saturday, and I asked about the price adjustment policy. The salesperson told me it was 14 days, you just have to bring in your receipt.

[Mommyto3]

I just got a price adjustment last week..it is still 14 days, because I went in on day 14 LOL!! Their new reciepts are great because they are barcoded...so nothing is missed...my last PA...hold onto your hats..was for $65!!! I still can't believe it, because I really hadn't spent that much $$!! The good news, was that on my new receipt, it showed me the items..old price, new price AND I had received 20% off some things when I bought them, and it still gave me the 20% off of the new price! Crazy.

I used to play this game all the time with Gap..if I was outside of the 14 days, I would buy the item at the new sale price and return it with my old receipt, so I would get the PA that way...but 3 kiddos later, that is just too much work!!