Thursday, December 22, 2011

Final Sale Is Back {talk about the Winter blues!}

"Thanks!" to many of you, including Katarzyna & Cass (in this post), GigiOfCa (in this post), as well as Irina, who let us know the following {sad} news from this morning.

With the Holidays in full swing, J.Crew thought it would be a good time to bring back Final Sale (click here to shop online). That means customers cannot return and exchange sale-priced items purchased online. I am not sure if brick & mortar (B&M) stores are switching over to Final Sale too (but they probably will soon). Ugh.

J.Crew is also offering a new promo for 20% off on any Final Sale purchase with promo code MUSTSHOP. The offer expires Wednesday, December 28, 2011. The fine print of this offer includes:
*No exchanges, no returns on items marked as final sale. Offer valid at jcrew.com only. Offer is not valid at J.Crew retail stores or J.Crew Factory stores. Offer does not apply to previous purchases or the purchase of gift cards. 20% off discount applies to J.Crew sale and Factory online sale items only. Offer valid through Wednesday, December 28, 2011, 11:59pm ET. Savings are applied at checkout with code MUSTSHOP. Offer not valid on phone orders. Cannot be combined with any other promotion. Limit one promotional code per order. Details of offer are subject to change.
This offer is not as good as what we have been seeing the past few weeks (even just yesterday!) from J.Crew. (They really brought out some amazing promos!) But maybe J.Crew will drastically reduce prices to move out merchandise. Let's hope anyways.

Honestly, I won't be buying anything on sale online for awhile. I have bought a lot of online purchases (thanks to all those fabulous promotions!) with merchandise that were mix- some things I absolutely love and some others returned because of issues of fit and quality. I didn't mind any of the issues because I knew I had the option to return and an excuse to go back to the stores to find some more goodies. Oh well! My wallet could use the break. ;)

Did you check out the Final Sale section today? Were you able to snag any amazing deals? If so, please share! :)

51 comments:

  1. Good thing - I already bought enough and havent worn half of it yet!!! Easy to stay away! A few lower prices, but many are the same price they were when the 30% off was happening. Why would I have to have it now if it's not 30% off? Right?

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  2. I agree, Suzy! So glad I snagged 99% of the things I wanted before Final Sale kicked in and at 30% off.

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  3. Cue the "The sale you've been waiting for is here" e-mail! Barf.

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  4. Seems like normal sale is happening less and less, didn't the last Final Sale only end about a month ago? I wish J.Crew moved to the practice of other retailers where if an item is let's say 60 % off original price then it can't be returned; a high enough discount from the original would be the only way to warrant a final sale. I hate when items get a first cut to sale (and I haven't had time to try it on in store).

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  5. I was very disappointed to see final sale return. My PS did a we will find it search yesterday for two pairs of shoes after online told her they were completely sold out and both have come up empty. I had a hard time believing that stores were completely sold out & then one of the items is back this morning. So convenient. Has anyone seen the classic mini in winter white in a size 2 anywhere? I have multiple orders canceled and stores are supposedly completely sold out and I wanted this skirt so bad!

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  6. I agree. why buy at 20 percent off and final sale at that when I was able to get several items at 30 percent off with ability to return?
    On another note, anyone remember what the after-Xmas sale was like at Jcrew? Am wondering if the coats and jackets will be cheaper than what they were under the 30 percent promotions we've been seeing.

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  7. Seems to me the prices aren't even lowered from what they were 2 days ago, making this 'sale' pointless. Trying to re-order the sherpa hoodie in a larger size because my normal one was tiny on me and I got it on 30% off. Getting tired of the inconsistencies, both pricing and sizing.

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  8. Hooray, Final Sale is back! It's a great incentive to not shop.

    And Hanah, the coats will get cheaper. There are plenty in stores and those will be shipped to the warehouse eventually, where they will languish in ... Final Sale.

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  9. Hanah, I second Dinster's comment. Coats will get marked down steadily but the styles, sizes and colors will be sporadic as stores ship items back and returns come in. It's a bit of a crap shoot but if you like to stalk popbacks you will probably find what you want.

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  10. Hanah, coats and jackets gets heavily marked down if not immediately after Xmas in January. Last year they had 40% off final sale a couple of times and the stores had progressively 30%, 40% and even 50% off to clear out merchandise. If you can hold off there are good deals ahead IMO. HTH!

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  11. When will we see some new arrivals? It seems like ti has been forever!

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  12. Yeah, not seeing anything marked way down in Final Sale that I like enough to buy w/out the option to return, and there's not much choice stock in my size-range anyway. I'll just wait for the classics and great colors to get updated w/ current ship dates and buy them at full price as usual :p. The promo extravaganza has been fun, though!

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  13. I went through the last final sale and did not buy a thing. I refuse to even look at the sale section anymore during final sale. J.Crew's loss. I will be not looking again....unfortunately, it is not a deterrent for me to shop b/c I just have branched out to other online sites with great after Christmas sales where items are returnable!

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  14. Online PS said new arrivals will be on the website on December 29.

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  15. I'm glad I bought a ton of sale stuff for my kids about a month ago with the 30% off promos - none of the items are any cheaper now and the selection is much reduced. Who do they think is going to buy big during final sale?

    Crewcuts items have free shipping all the time, and it is one of the reasons why I shop at JCrew for my two girls. They should follow suit for the adult categories.

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  16. 20% off and final sale are just not good enough for me.

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  17. Well I will admit I did bite this am as I have been waiting for the winter floral cardi to pop back in a small and kept missing it, so I was okay since it only came to $50ish after the 20%. I don't like final sale either, but I have stalked and missed this cardigan so many times, I broke my own rule!

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  18. OT ( Alexis please delete if this is inappropriate )
    But has anybody else had issues with their account disappearing? I can't log in as it's not recognizing my email address.

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  19. TJ, that happened to me once after a Find It search. Someone changed my account name by adding a 1 at the end of it. Call CS to see if they can restore your account. It was a couple of years since that happened but it was a hassle and basically my account had to be deleted and started again from scratch. Hope it works out for you.

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  20. TJ, come to think of it, if I remember correctly it was shortly after the infamous website "upgrade" of 2008.

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  21. Xoxo
    I just had an email saying that a wwfify search was successful right before this happened. I bet it was the same thing. I emailed my PS but haven't heard back from her. I will call CS when I get home.
    Thanks for the response. I appreciate it.

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  22. I was in the Walnut Creek store yesterday and they still had the 30% promo off of the whole store - NOT final sale and said that promo would go on through 12/24. So, you might want to check stores if you missed out on something... of course, the prices are all over the map. Some are higher in store than online and vice versa.

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  23. in store promo's are stil 30% off and not final sale. tons of new markdowns too. the wool no. 2 double serge pencil skirts are 79.99 + 30% off.

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  24. Lots of empty space at the Polaris store, but they still have 30% off as well. Really liked the plaid wool cafe capris (esp. for $35!!!) but they were unbelievably itchy, which I'm sure I've read about on here before.

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  25. How in the world can JCrew call it "Final Sale" when none of the prices have been marked down. I have been eyeing the Jenna Cardigan which was priced at $59.99 during the 30% off promotion. I checked today and it's still priced at $59.99.

    This is just SO ANNOYING JCrew. It just makes me not want to shop there anymore. JCrew used to be my go to place for everything -- not any more.

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  26. I think it's crazy to have final sale with all the last minute shopping going on. Seems very foolish to discourage people from shopping. I will never buy anything on final sale again due to fit/quality issues.

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  27. I agree, it is totally stupid on their end to bring back final sale without further marking down the merchandise AND three days before Xmas. I am happy with what I bought with the 30% off, that was fun and I wouldn't have taken the chance on many of the items that I bought and I am keeping if there were final sale.

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  28. I've successfully return things that were labelled final sale before. Just sayin'

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  29. I stopped by our JCrew store here in Oklahoma City. The signs still say 30% off, and I didn't see any final sale signs.

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  30. Oh gag! No kidding winter blues! I may pick up some duplicates if there is 40% off but nothing I haven't tried. No JCrew, you go ahead and keep all your stuff.

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  31. Dinster it is the incentive to not shop that I need!

    I also won't be spending any time looking endlessly through the sale items, which I'm relieved about actually.
    If I hadn't returned so much stuff this year I probably wouldn't be as scared of final sale!

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  32. My PS was able to find the mixed media skirt for me! I don't even know if it will show as final sale but I don't care. I've been stalking it forever.

    Other than that item, I will not be buying. I have not had quality issues lately, though sizing issues abound.

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  33. Very scrooge-like IMO. Absolutely no incentive for me to shop at the moment. Which is a good thing. I have a wool No. 2 pencil skirt coming my way that I tracked down on my own by calling a bunch of stores. And a huge bunch of returns to make from the 30 off sales. So, I"ll stop in the store. There hasn't been too much there calling my name, so I doubt I'll find much.

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  34. Nicole, I was at the Polaris store today, too. I don't know if you saw it, but over one section of sale merchandise was a 30% off sign with "final sale" in tiny letters. I wonder if that's why the store was dead when I was there. Banana Republic (40% off sale) and Ann Taylor (50% off everything!), on the other hand, were hopping. JC didn't get any of my money today.

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  35. taite, I also had a good track record of returning final sale items until recently, when both store and online started taking a harder line on this. I refuse to grovel to a retailer to take back ill-fitting, poor quality garments. Consequently, I will no longer buy final sale. Alternately, I bought like a madwoman during the % off promos with free shipping, and kept more than I expected, given my track record this year with disappointments and returns. Hopefully JC will take notice--this would be especially helpful for those of us who buy by mail exclusively.

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  36. I sometimes feel like they hide certain pieces and bring them back out for final sale....so even though the prices are not lower...they added some pieces that have been "missing" for a few weeks. I thought they were sold out....so I picked up a few of those items...

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  37. Any idea if Madewell is going to have % off any time soon? Are there any good Madewell blogs out there that you can recommend?

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  38. I'm surprised to find it's a final sale and nothing much has been further marked down. So easy choice for me, not going to bite.

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  39. I too would love to find a madewell blog! Any suggestions? I love that store and the quality is so much better!

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  40. I third a Madewell blog! They just had a 30% off your order just this past Tuesday (irrc), so I'm thinking there probably won't be another promo until after Christmas.

    I'd definitely like to get updates on in-store promos because the fact that Madewell even has final sales given how few and far between their stores are is ludicrous.

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  41. Desert Flower: CONGRATULATIONS on finally getting the Mixed-Media skirt!!!

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  42. Thanks, FFM! We must be cautious about getting too excited until it actually ships :) I am so looking forward to it, I have many outfits planned.

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  43. Becky O., last I checked the Jenna cardigan was $39.99 in stores in every color except ivory and navy. I picked up a bunch of them during Black Friday week with the extra 25% off. Kinda adds insult to injury that they're STILL $59.99 online, doesn't it?

    Anyone know what the Crystal button cardi is priced at in stores? I've loved these sweaters for several years now - enough to know they look very shabby after a handful of wearings - so while I'd like to pick up at least one in the gorgeous red color, I've set a firm limit of $30 or less.

    Already contemplating some post-holiday returns. I recently ordered the Dream V-neck sweater in stripe, and while I think it's a cute sweater (though the peach color is way peachier in person than it looks online, which I'm not a fan of to begin with), I tried it on briefly at home with a few different outfits and it's already starting to pill! Haven't even taken the tags off yet nor worn it for more than 10 minutes.

    All in all, I'm finding that I can't be tempted when it comes to final sale. Did just receive my 2012 planner though, which was a nice surprise since they seemingly removed me from every gift promotion in 2011 though my spending remained consistent with years prior.

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  44. I don't have a Madewell blog but I do have a post on the spring 2012 lookbook on my blog today. There is a link to Lucky Magazine for the full lookbook as well.

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  45. As a 17 year old whose closet consists largely of Madewell (40 to 50 percent, at least) I fourth the idea for a Madewell blog! Their clothing has consistently been of excellent quality. I feel confident even ordering on Final Sale, so lovely are the goods.

    How about starting a group Tumblr equipped with Disqus? It would allow people from all platforms to comment and submit photos, reviews, rants, complaints, etc. If you're interested, please email me (dermaushaus@gmail.com) -- I'd love to see J. Crew's little sister get a blog of her own!

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  47. I know final sale stinks, but one worthy item is the Marielle dress in solstice floral, item 62099, $60 less 20% with final sale ($48), marked down from $188. All of my local B&Ms had this dress in their windows and it is really a lovely dress. This fits TTS for JC's strapless dresses and b/c it is cotton but such a pretty design and pattern can easily be worn any season. I had purchased when it was $99 less 30% but not final sale, and I think it's likely that I will wear it either tonight or for Xmas day.

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