I Am So Money

A reporter from Money magazine is interviewing me, the Consumerist and others for an article about decoding price tags. Retailers may not want to reveal their discounting schemes, but shoppers have been sharing lots of ways to reverse engineer prices since I posted about the 4 in the last digit of Target's tags indicating a final discount. Know any other price hacks? Share them while the story is hot. Comment below or email me, atwatervillagenewbie at gmail.

Decoding Target Discounts: Look for the 4

Here in the Newbie household, 100 percent of us shop at Target. Even the cats get stuff from Target. (Not SuperTarget, of course, because Southern California does not have a SuperTarget. Yet.) So here's a hint we learned years ago from a Target store manager. It seems to still hold true. Full prices end in 9. Every time Target discounts, the final digit of the price drops. The lowest the final digit will go is 4. If you see something you want and the price ends in 4, buy it. You won't get it for less. Happy clearance shopping!

Glendale May Not Get First California SuperTarget

The former Robinsons-May store at Glendale Galleria: 180,000 square feet. SuperTarget stores: about 175,000 square feet. The Galleria seems like a good spot for Target's first hypermarket in California, no? No. Even though Target plans to open a store there in 2007, the Galleria space is two levels. SuperTargets, like their wannabe cousin Target Greatlands, have double entrances on a single level. And giant surface parking lots. Head east, my in-the-know friends. Head to Moreno Valley, an exurb about 70 miles east of Los Angeles. At Stoneridge Towne Centre, Hwy. 60 and Nason St., in July 2007, Moreno Valley opens California's first SuperTarget. All 186,077 square feet of it. P.S. - Another Glendale, the one in Colorado, may still own the title to world's largest Target location. The SuperTarget there is 200,000 square feet. P.P.S. - If you don't know what the big deal is about SuperTarget, then you just haven't been to SuperTarget.

A Two-Story Target!

I wouldn't trade the varieties and vastness of my shopping opportunities in Los Angeles for those in any place I've lived before. But. When you used to live a stone's throw from the world's largest Target store - nay, the world's largest SuperTarget store - you will always yearn for its one-stop shopping magic. SuperTarget is Target plus grocery store. SuperTarget is like IKEA built by Americans. (I don't know what Target Greatland is supposed to be, but I can tell you it's no SuperTarget.) So this factoid hit me like a bullseye: There are no SuperTarget stores within 200 miles of Atwater Village, Los Angeles, California. Target, yes, about seven in LA. SuperTarget, no. In fact I don't know where the nearest SuperTarget is. Vegas? So what a nice surprise yesterday to discover that the nearest Target, in the Eagle Rock neighborhood just four miles east of home, though not a SuperTarget, is a rare two-story Target. It's one of about 30 multi-level Target stores peppered in US urban areas. It even has the Vermaport escalator for your cart. Target in Hollywood is also multi-level, apparently, though no doubt much busier. We may head that way next time. [Photo from Vidalia's Flickr page]