Lila Dishes for NYTimes Sunday Styles

The height of shopping season is just ahead of us and shoppers need to remember that all sales are not created equally. Specifically, those flash sales might not be offering as hot of a bargain as you think.

New York Times Style reporter, Stephanie Rosenbloom reports that shoppers can regularity find even better deals with just a bit more online searching. On Guilt.com, "for instance, a Kate Spade cabana-stripe medium tote bag was recently $169, plus $5.95 shipping. That same day, the bag was on KateSpade.com for $130 with free shipping — about $45 cheaper," she writes.

So what about all this flash that can cost you extra cash?


Those who keep an eye on sales say there are more businesses proffering discount clothing than ever before, which means that no one channel is always tops for bargains. “It’s really hard to get good closeouts nowadays because so many places are fighting for them,” said Lila Delilah, who writes the designer sales tracking blog Madison Avenue Spy. “Now the Web sites are fighting the discounters, who are fighting the flash sale sites.”

Ms. Delilah said she tends to find the best deals in brick-and-mortar stores. “I always feel that there’s nothing as good as an old-fashioned boutique or department store end-of-season sale,” she said, explaining that returns are easy and that a good salesperson will call a customer when a coveted item is discounted. This is why Ms. Delilah posts salesclerk contact information on her blog. “Those relationships really count for something,” she said.

Click here to see Stephanie's full article, Bargain Hunters, Hold That Click? What do you think?