6 Winners Hacks & Tips From An Employee That You'll Wish You'd Known Forever
There are loads of ways to save money! 🙌
Shopping at Winners often means great deals on big brands, but there are actually tons of Winners Canada hacks and tips that could save you even more money.
Narcity sat down with former Winners Canada employee Greg* to get all of the behind-the-scenes details about making that dollar stretch further on your next visit.
From checking the annual Final Clearance sales, to asking employees about further reductions and visiting at the right time of day, you should always keep these tricks and tips in your back pocket.
You can thank us later!
Check Final Clearance sales
While Winners is a place with regular markdowns and other sales, according to Greg the best time to find absolute rock bottom prices is in January and February when they have their giant Final Clearance sales.
"This is where you're getting stuff for like $1," said Greg. "You can get some pretty, I would say, fun stuff. Maybe not necessarily what you're going to wear every day, but some funky outfits."
Shop early
Greg confirmed to Narcity that the entire store's daily markdowns happen first thing in the morning, so if you want to get a real jump on those deals, you'll want to be there as early as possible.
"If you want to get to the markdowns," said Greg, "you have to get there as soon as the store opens."
"And people do that," he added. "People will wait outside so they can get to the markdowns."
So, to get to those mega cheap deals, you better set that alarm in the morning because it's all going down when the rooster crows!
Double check prices
While you should definitely avoid being overzealous in this respect, you can actually ask employees to double check whether an item is on sale.
Greg explained that every morning, staff members go through every section of the store and scan each item to find out if it has been reduced in price.
"The items that are on sale, you take them off the rack, you put a little red sticker on them and then you put them in the sales section," said Greg.
However, it's possible that some sale items get missed or placed in the wrong section, which would lead to them not being marked as on sale. So, you can always ask the employee to confirm if you want to check.
"I would say most of the times I've done that, the item was not on sale, but you could ask," said Greg.
Cheap chocolates
Aint' nothing better than cheap chocolates and Winners apparently has it in spades.
Greg pointed out that if you're a chocoholic, the store should always be on your radar, especially around Christmas time.
"Winners has chocolate all the time" said Gregg. Even better, it's often much more affordable than other stores.
"If you're a total Lindor freak like me, I would recommend going to get them at Winners," said Greg
Easy returns
It's a whole lot easier to make returns if you don't have to return items to the exact store you bought them from.
"Most stuff you can buy at Winners, Marshalls or HomeSense can be returned to whatever store you want, as long as you have the receipt," said Greg.
But there is some limit on that, as you can't return HomeSense furniture to a Winners or Marshalls store that doesn't have a furniture section. Other than that, it's mostly fair game.
"But know if you are returning it to a different kind of store, it will take longer because the [different stores'] systems aren't necessarily connected," he said.
Check the jewellery
According to Greg, the public are missing out on the Winners jewellery section and he said most people don't realize how good it is.
"I love the jewellery section," he revealed. "It's quite reasonably priced and you can get something pretty nice for $20."
"[There's] always a jewellery attendant and I would say they're pretty knowledgeable. And in my experience they always give their honest opinion, probably because they don't make any commission," continued Greg.
It also is a great place to grab a quick gift.
Greg's advice? "Just take the tag off, someone doesn't need to know it's $20. It looks like it's like $60!"
*Names have been changed to maintain confidentiality. Narcity has verified their identity.
