Walgreen's Christmas Light Sales, clever and deceptive marketing scheme

[Arteom]

Here at our local California Walgreen's I was ecstatic to see the large outdoor signs read '75% Off X-Mas!' on the 5th Of January. Upon walking inside the store I noticed they had many LED's available for sale ( I was in the market for many), and thought to myself, Why?

Walmart, Loews, HomeDepot, Rite Aid etc were basically stripped of LED's even at 50% off the day after Christmas, however at 75% still a generous supply of LED's remain at Walgreen's. I take a box of 70Ct Store brand Cool White icicle LED's to the register and ask them to check the price, and was somewhat shocked when I heard $5.49 Originally being $11.99, When Walmart was selling their 70ct Cool White Icicle LED's at around $5.89, Original! Of course I put them back and went to another Walgreen's this store had only a few boxes of lights, but none the less all lights were 75% off, I took all LED's at no more than $2.50/ box, I was happy.

I then go to all the Walgreen's in our area within a 20 mile radius (12 in total) again only 50% everywhere else, I ask the Manager(s) when will they go to 75%, they all came back with "never, they will all sell even at 50%".

Here's the thing, Walgreen's Icicle LED's last year were priced only a little more to Walmart's ($6.99) but this year they were selling at 10.99 + a "Buy One get One Free" promotion the entire season, of course until December 26th.

This year Walgreen's purposely almost doubled their "Original" price for most of their christmas lights, offered by one get one free promotions all season, and after Christmas have decided not to sell lights below 50%! The average selling price from Thanksgiving to today at 50% off (January 7th) have a mere $0.50 difference. Very clever from a marketing standpoint, but I wont be fooled, and don't want any of you... keep on the lookout for deceptive sales!

[Surfing4Dough]

Honestly, when I think of good quality LEDs, I definitely don't think of Walgreens. Just sayin'...

[Arteom]

Honestly, when I think of good quality LEDs, I definitely don't think of Walgreens. Just sayin'...

I completely agree, but I simply cannot afford the commercial quality lights that most of you use. Maybe one day

[SteveMaris]

The thing that ticks me off is Walgreens as well as other stores will deny up and down that the lights go to 75% off even the day before they go 75% off.

I like to get the name of the person doing the denying on the phone, ( I always call first) and then ask for them as I am buying them all at 75% off.

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[Arteom]

The thing that ticks me off is Walgreen's as well as other stores will deny up and down that the lights go to 75% off even the day before they go 75% off.

I like to get the name of the person doing the denying on the phone, ( I always call first) and then ask for them as I am buying them all at 75% off.

.

Yes this continually happened to me! I call and ask if the lights are at 75% off, when they say yes I go to the store only to find out that's not the case

Next time, I will call, write down the name, and ask for them when I get to the store, however I think they will still deny everything. The only way I think it would work is if you ask to speak to the manager over the phone, get their input, then ask for them in the store...

[David Rise]

Glad I wasn't the only one that noticed this. While most of the stores had everything on sale, including lights. One of our local Walgreen's had everything except lights on sale. They have a buttload of lights left over. I guess this one store will hang on to them and sell them next year.

If you think about it. Walgreen's and CVS both had 50ct LEDs for just over $10. That's completely ridiculous when you consider, that presale prices from CDI, HLE, MITS, have quality commercial grade 100ct for just a dolllar or two more.

[MCas4380]

I have had some strange experiances with walgreens myself.

After being told that light wouldn't go below 75% one day the were I picked up all the greens LED's at $2.50 a box then ran to all the other stoes that had them and got the same 32 boxes in total.

then a few days latter the light were back at 50% and stayed that way for the few od balls that are left a month later. and if you ask thenm they will say they don't go 75% off

They also told me that not all the light get markedat 50% off , they get told what to back stock before the clearance sales. The reason this came up was that one day i was in there and they had more light then the big box stores next day sale started and there was a lot less left first thing.

So in my opinion if your watching Walgreens you need to go in constantly and the employees don't even know when there on sale.

[jeffl]

Menards is the only store that I have seen that sticks to 50% and 50% only. When they hit 50% you buy or forget it.

[MCas4380]

Speaking of menards last week thier light were back at 30% off and they had ALOT and when i asked why? they told me they were running the Bag sale and if it fits in the bag it's 20% off well by my math that less of a discount then just 50%.

The bag sale is 20% off of your reduces price. so your right they will not go past 50%

[ClydeL]

I got half of my LED supply from Wallgreens last year and most of it from them this year. The first 5 stors I went to all said, "nope won't sell for 75%." But when I found a store with a huge amount of inventory, I told the manager I'd buy all 60 boxes (solid colors only) if they give me 75% off. He got approval from his Distric Manager. Keep in mind that I also show them a video of my LOR display on my cell phone and never fail to mention that we take donations for our local fire department.

AFTER I had that receipt with 75% off, it was just a matter of going to other stores and showing them the price. Then I would ask for the same thing from them. It worked. In one day, I picked up over 150 boxes of LED's.

As for the quality, I have not had one problem with last year's lights. They look amazing with my display. And Wallgreens was the only store to have GREEN LED's available.

If you watch the video, you'll see I needed some snubbers. But overall, the LED's on all the windows were made up entirely of Walgreen LED (and the only elements to have the Green LED's). there is a mix of LED and incandescent lights on the white tree line on the left, and I think they all worked well together. Only 1/3 of the display is incandescent and with this year's purchase, I'll make even more of a conversion to LED's for 2013.

The LED's that are on the 6' tall white tree line were pruchased from a grocery store chain(Giant Eagle) here in Pittsburgh, PA. They also sold me their LED's @ 75% off or ~$2.00 / box of 50 counts. (they only had red/blue/cool clear LED's). I know the true test will be to see how these LED's perform next season. I'm prepared for the worst. With that said, I picked up a huge supply of Big Lots lights (160 ct on reals). I tested with LOR and they work. But, they have been on steady buring for 12 days and I found 1 string has 5 burned out LED's. I still have 18 days before the return time is up... I went ahead and opened 8 more random selected reals and 5 boxes of red LED's and will test them to see what their quality is. Statistically speaking, if I see 5 burnt out bulbs across the sample, they will all go back for refund. The Walgreens and Giant Eagle LED's never failed for the 2 months that I ran them (24/7).

[Arteom]

Walgreen's used to be my premier "after x-mas" light supplier. However I wish I would have gone to Walmart and gotten their LED's, they only had the mini "traditional" style caps and warm white, but at $1.40 box & a stock of at-least 200 boxes they were a great deal. However to my surprise Walmart began 75% off sometime January 4th, I went to the store at 6:00am on the first after the party, and lights were still at 50%...

Its funny how styles and tastes change over 5 years. back then the only lights left at after christmas sales where multi colors, now only whites seem to make it.

[eurbani]

Christmas 2011, I had an interesting experience at Walgreens.  I walked in and they had a broken display model mini-tree marked $3.  They had 8 more boxed mini-trees.  Stupid me asks, "Are they all $3."  The answer that I received was no.  They are just 50% off ($14.98).  Just the broken display model is $3.  I came back the next day and the display model was marked $2.  There was a different clerk on.  The trees were up high.  So, I had someone bring all 8 of them down for me.  When they rang them up, of course the computer said $14.98.  I said to the clerk, "aren't these the same as that one?"  She said yes and charged me $2 each.  I think that they didn't want to put them back up on the top of the shelves.  Anyway, they looked great in this year's display.  

[Arteom]

Sometimes things just work in your favor