Fashion
How I Survived a Crazy 8 Blowout Sale: My Shopping Experience!
Mar
Growing fast
As a mother of a fast growing child, I am always on the lookout for new clothes at affordable prices. There are a variety of stores that I shop at for different reasons. For fashion key items, I tend to shop at H&M, Zara, Gap, and European online websites.
Everyday playwear clothes can range anywhere from Target, Crazy 8, Old Navy, and even Walmart. Therefore, when I heard that Gymboree Group, Inc. announced that they filed for bankruptcy back in January, that only meant one thing for me. SALES, SALES, and more SALES!!
Company Umbrella
Shopping a sale is like new years to me! I can shop while saving a couple of dollars. It’s a win win situation. Also, if you didn’t know; Gymboree owns Crazy 8.
Now, I don’t shop at Gymboree as I feel that Gymboree and Crazy 8 have the same aesthetics but different price points. Why would I shop at Gymboree when I could get the exact same thing at Crazy 8 minus a few colors for a cheaper price? I want to make the most out of my money.
Therefore, Crazy 8 is one of my go to stores for playwear. It’s a bittersweet moment as I hate to see them go out of business but I love that this would lead to sales.
Black Friday Sale Madness?
When you think of any store closing sales, you think of black friday madness. Crazy moms and dads fighting for the best items for their little ones. Any sane parent would not want to bring their kids to that mess and risk losing a child. Therefore as a savvy shopper, I went online first before dealing with any real life madness.
Online Experience
The Crazy 8 website is officially closed. However, when I shopped this past weekend it was still up. Here is my review of the site before it closed.
As a busy mom, I turn to online shopping first, as I can reach all styles and products with just a touch of my fingers. Plus, this allows me to shop freely at the comfort of my own home.
The website is fairly easy to use and navigate thru. You ccould select from the drop down boxes and drill down further into the following options: gender, category, sizing, color, and prices. The site had their discounted prices listed right on next to the strikes thru original price.
This is useful because I didn’t have to manually calculate the discount differences and continue on shopping. Also all the sizing seemed to still be stock. This was great because I could get any size and colorway that I wanted. With the website giving me a good experience, I decided to try the in store experience.
In-Store Experience – Discount & Sales Everywhere!
Our local Crazy 8 was located at a mall. Now I wasn’t going to tackle shopping alone with a 4 year old. Therefore, I brought my husband along so he can watch my son. This way I could truly shop without any interruption or worries. Arriving at the store was a bit busier than any other day. Crazy 8 did announce their store closing sale with a sign outside their store and banners hanging on the outside of their windows.
There was a good amount of traffic in the store but not black Friday traffic. I was still able to move about, have my personal bubble space, and not bump into anyone. Which is good in my opinion. The store was clean and well managed. Their shelves and fixtures was fully stocked. You could find every size available. However, they didn’t offer as many styles as they did online. Which was a bummer because I figured I could find the items I eyed online in store.
Nonetheless, this didn’t stop me from shopping. Crazy 8 had discount conversions signs everywhere. This was helpful as I didn’t have to manually calculate the sale price differences. Crazy 8 also listed additional discounts above certain racks. This was great but it didn’t have the conversions. Therefore, I had to do those conversions manually. I didn’t mind it at first but as my shopping cart grew it was a hassle to count all the discounts on top of the sale prices. But I can’t complain much because I’m saving money on sales.
Here are some cute shots of my little dude in his Crazy 8 gear.
Bitter Sweet Goodbye
Overall, my experience was a good one from this store closing. Crazy 8 had good discounts and sales. I got 2 pairs of stretchy jeans, a swim trunk, a waffle knit long sleeve tee, and 2 graphic tees for only $45. It wasn’t a bad hull.
Not only that, the store associates were helpful. One of them told me that our Crazy 8 location was only opened until May first. Not only that they receive about 20 boxes of merchandise every day to display before the closing. This was a relief because it means that they’re cycling in new merch to keep the store fresh until it’s closing.
If you haven’t yet, check out Crazy 8 and their super deals. Also, if you like saving and shopping sales, learn about the fashion seasons. You can check out my blog and learn How To Look Expensive On a Budget.
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Great article. I I don’t think i would be able to go into a mass clearance store without help. It’s great that you planned it ahead instead of just wandering in. By planning ahead you avoided the problem of not knowing where to start and feeling lost. Congrats on your survival!
I’m glad you enjoyed my article. From past experience, planning is key. Without it, my bank would take a hard hit. Therefore, in order to capitalize on sales without making a huge dent on my bank account I plan for it now. Especially with so many stores closing, it’s hard to limit oneself.