The Price Tag Trick That Can Score You Better Decor Deals At Marshalls

There are secrets lurking on Marshalls price tags, similar to HomeGoods tags, that tell you a lot about the product you're considering buying. For starters, the 1 or 2 at the top right corner of that long line of numbers is widely believed to indicate whether it was made for Marshalls or T.J. Maxx (they're owned by the same company). A 1 means the item is a cheaper version of a brand produced for Marshalls stores, while a 2 means it's an actual branded item. Some even say a 7 suggests the item was discontinued. There's also another number on there that can be used as a price-tag trick to score better deals on decor items at Marshalls, something you also probably didn't know about.

On something like that viral marble Rachel Zoe lamp, you'll notice a little black box. That box indicates the week of the year the item arrived in the store. This can help you figure out if it was recently stocked on the shelves or if it's been sitting there for months. Just look at the calendar, count what week you're in, and compare it to what the price tag shows.

If the tag shows 13, as in week 13 of the year, that would be sometime in March. But if you're shopping in November and there hasn't been any reduction in price since it arrived, there's a possibility it's cheaper than what the current tag is showing. In that case, you might want to ask a manager if the item is due for a markdown.

Another way to potentially snag a home decor item or home storage solution at a lower price at Marshalls is to look for clearance pieces with red stickers on the price tag. These can signal whether the item might need to be marked down further. On the bottom of a red sticker, you'll notice a long number, and all the way to the right is a one- or two-digit number that tells you which week the last markdown was completed. As TikToker @nicolethefreespirit explains, there are 52 weeks in the markdown cycle, so this number will always fall between 01 and 52. If you see 03, that means the last markdown took place during week three of that cycle. So what does that mean for you?

Well, if the red clearance sticker says 03 and the store is currently in week 11 of markdowns, you can ask the store manager if it should be priced lower, exactly what the TikToker did in a previous video. She also explains that to find out what markdown week your store is currently in, you can simply ask the manager, and they should be able to tell you. She says TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods usually mark items down every three months. Sometimes it happens closer to two months, but three is the norm. So if a tag says 03 and it's week 15, there's a good chance a markdown was skipped. And if that's the case, a manager, if you ask nicely, may be willing to check the system and adjust the price if it should be lower.