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Shops & Sales

We couldn’t let a section like this go without some mention of the great shopping opportunities that Orlando is blessed with – and the regular Sales which make retail therapy even better value!

PRO SPOT: If you want to get the full lowdown on all the main sales and bargains week to week, get hold of the local Orlando Sentinel on a Sunday. While it weighs about 10lbs with its million supplements, it also contains a bonanza of shopping inserts and sales news which highlight where all the main bargains will be.

The key to hunting out the big sales bargains in the US is simply to keep your eye open. There are not as many sale ‘seasons’ as we are used to in the UK, but virtually every store will have a sale at some point in the year (sometimes for no reason at all other than to boost flagging profits), and these are especially worth seeking out in the malls, where prices generally are slightly above the other outlets. However, manage to visit a mall store with the magic ‘Sale’ sign in the window, and you will usually be on to some serious bargains.

THE big sale event to watch out for nationwide, though, is the Black Friday. The fourth Thursday of November is one of America’s biggest public holidays, Thanksgiving, (with theme park crowds to prove it), but the day AFTER is a mad free-for-all at the shops! Put simply, the Friday after Thanksgiving is like the UK Easter, Summer, Christmas and New Year sales rolled into one – it is HUGE. Stores open at 5am – or even earlier in some cases – to try to deal with the mad stampede of bargain hunters (hardly surprising when you look at the low, low prices they put on some headline items, up to 90% off in many cases), and the car parks for the stores, malls and outlets centres will be packed to overflowing by 9am. This relentless bargain-hunting continues all day and is actually quite fun if you can keep up with it – and you WILL come away with some great savings even on the usually low prices you find in America. But be aware, many offers are for a limited time (the best are from, say, 5am-6am) and often in limited quantity. If you are after a particular item, keep in mind it isn’t uncommon for Americans to arrive an hour, two hours, even the night before (camping out in front of the store!) to be first in the queue.

Another Christmas season shopping option is geared specifically toward children. Some shops offer a Kid’s Shopping Day (or evening), where ‘Santa’s Helpers’ take the children through the store, helping them pick out a gift for Mum and Dad. Look for these in the sales ads or on line at the store’s website.

After Thanksgiving Day, you will find a handful of regular and semi-regular sales events which are also worth noting. At Disney’s town of Celebration, their High Street (actually called Market Street) area features a number of interesting boutique-style shops (as well as some tempting restaurants), and they also have two notable events, the Winter Sidewalk Sale, usually for three days in mid-January (10am-9pm Fri and Sat, noon-6pm Sun; www.celebrationfl.com/market_street/) and the Summer Sidewalk Sale, for three days in mid-July. Here the vendors bring their wares out onto the streets, with extra activities and entertainments, to make a major community weekend of things.

The end of July is highlighted by a Tax Free Shopping extravaganza in many of the shops, with all back-to-school items offered tax free (they stretch the definition of ‘back to school’ to include a huge variety of goods, including clothes, trainers and more!). Check out more on www.premiumoutlets.com, which lists seasonal savings shop by shop.

PRO SPOT:One last shopping tip is to log on to the Orlando Sentinel website, where you can sign up for their Sales notification email. Go to www.orlandosentinel.com, click on Marketplace and then the Shopping link, and then subscribe (free) to create your own account. You can then create a profile to alert you for any forthcoming sales in a variety of categories that may interest you. Now THAT’S a shopping service!

Want to hear what other ATD members have to say about Orlando shopping? Check out our forums!