Reading is fundamental. In order to ensure that you succeed while shopping the Dollar General Clearance Event – make sure you understand how a Clearance Event works by reading all of the tips below!

Click here to skip directly to visuals.

What is a Dollar General “Clearance Event”?

If you’ve ever been inside of a Dollar General, chances are you’ve seen the stock carts sitting vacant in between aisles. Or maybe you’ve taken a look down their clearance section and seen the overflow of orange – sticker items laying around on the shelf.

A Clearance Event happens for two main reasons:

• 1. Certain items may be discontinued by the manufacturer.
• 2. Too many items, not so much space.

Most stores during this event are 50% OFF. In the seven years that I have been doing this, I HAVE NEVER been into a store during the entirety of the event that WASN’T participating. Lots of times, unfortunately, employees have no idea that this is even going on – and that’s where a lot of misinformation is given. If they have no idea that this clearance event is even going on, they probably have no idea what items are a part of it.

However, there ARE some stores that are up to 70% OFF. These are less common than the 50% stores, but they are out there – I usually come across at least two or three across the duration of the clearance event. If your store is at 70%, you will know – they will have signs up that say 70% instead of 50%.

If an item is being “discontinued” or “clearanced”, shouldn’t that throw up a caution sign?

Absolutely not. A common misconception about items that are being put on clearance is that “they are toxic” and thus that is why they are being put on clearance.

While it’s true that some items (at any store, not just Dollar General) can be discontinued or recalled due to safety concerns, this is not why these items are being put on clearance. Dollar General, along with other stores, are not allowed to sell any items that have been recalled due to safety concerns.

The items that are being discontinued (i.e., Gain laundry detergent) can be marked as such for many different reasons, including:

• Packaging redesigns
• Smaller product sizes (think shrinkflation)
• A specified scent/flavor not performing well in general

To prove the second point – another reason why these items are clearanced is because the store does not have enough room on the shelves for new product that is coming in. Have you ever looked at the sky shelf above the toilet paper? Do it next time you’re in store, and you’ll see what I mean.

OK – So when is this event, and what will be 50% off?

The upcoming clearance event is scheduled to take place Friday, May 10th and wrap up at the end of the day on Sunday, March 12th.

Clearance events can include one or more of –

• Seasonal Merchandise
• CORE Merchandise
• POG (Plan-O-Gram) Merchandise

The upcoming clearance event starting May 10th is set to include CORE, POG, AND SEASONAL.

OK, but how am I supposed to know if what I have in my hand is clearance?

In order to know if the item that you have in your hand is clearance, you’re going to have to scan it. I can already hear you from here – “How am I supposed to scan when there is no service in the store?!”

In order to scan your items, you need to connect to DG’s WI-FI. To do this:

• Go to WI-FI while in the store
• Wait a second, find “DG – CUSTOMER” and click it (it may take a couple of times clicking it for it to actually connect)
• Once it says connected, wait a moment for their TOS to pop up. Agree and then click “Continue to Internet”
• Open the Dollar General app and you’re connected!

While in the store, scan your product with the barcode feature of the app. This will show you what the item is scanning at the register.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE IS ALMOST ALWAYS ISSUES WITH PRICES – ON FRIDAY MORNINGS ESPECIALLY. Sometimes items that ARE in fact clearance still do not ring half off even though they are supposed to. You can blame this on Dollar General’s junky system.

Employees have no control whatsoever of how an item rings up. However, if an item is not ringing correctly at register you can nicely ask them to scan the item with their handheld – which will tell them if the item is discontinued. Simply scanning the item through the register WILL NOT show if the item is discounted! If the item is ringing incorrectly, they should manually adjust it for you.

How often do these events happen?

Back when I first started couponing and shopping clearance events, the even happened one time a year – in August. Since the plague hit, DG has been having multiple clearance events a year – and you should consider that a luxury. When I first started, I was always very sad after it ended because I then knew that I’d have to wait an entire year.

Final thoughts?

1. Use apps like IBOTTA and FETCH REWARDS to maximize your savings. These apps cost nothing extra and all you do is submit your receipts to redeem rebates on qualifying items – saving you even more. In my seven years of deal hunting, I have saved well over $1,000 on Ibotta and received at least $500 in gift cards back from Fetch.

2. Expect that not everything is going to go smoothly. Especially on Friday mornings – and be prepared for the app the crash a lot that a.m., where so many users are trying to scan with the app at one time.

3. Don’t visit just one store, and don’t expect all of the clearance to be down the clearance aisle. If you just visit one store, you’re going to be let down. I usually go to about twenty stores over the course of the weekend, and I’m lucky if six or seven of them has the good stuff.

4. Be nice to everyone – this includes other clearance shoppers and employees. Employees probably dread these events more than you can imagine, and I don’t blame them. Everything is usually a mess. If there are other clearance shoppers around, help them out and don’t be stingy. I can tell you from experience that if someone is nice to me, I am more than happy to share with them what I picked out and where. If someone walks through the store like a freight train, scoffs and sighs, or leaves the store a mess, I don’t even bother. You get what you give out in this world.

And now, the good stuff … Below are all of the matchups that I have went into the store and made visuals of myself. NEW VISUALS WILL BE ADDED AS THEY ARE MADE, so bookmark this page and check back every day!

Don’t forget about IBOTTA to receive rebates for items that don’t have coupons!

VISUALS

Click on any photo to enlarge and save.

LAUNDRY CARE

PAPER PRODUCTS

Please keep in mind that some paper products may be YMMV, and not all stores carry all of these items.

FEMININE CARE

PERSONAL CARE

TOOTHPASTE

HOUSEHOLD

DIGITAL COUPON MATCHUPS

Please keep in mind that digital coupons found on the app may vary by account. Some digital coupons, if not clipped to your account within a certain timeframe, have a tendency to disappear. If you see a digital coupon that you would like to utilize during the clearance event, I highly suggest that you clip it when you see it and not wait until the clearance event to do so.

There may be multiple photos/slides for the same product – this shows different scenarios if you have different select digital coupons. There also may be different photos/slides due to the difference between what you would pay at an old system store vs. new system store.

To know if a digital coupon is attaching (in other words – WILL work) with the item in your hand while in the store, click the barcode scanning feature on the home page of the Dollar General app. Use this scanner to scan the barcode – which will show you the price in that store along with the digital coupons that will come off of that item. Make sure that you have the correct location set in the app while you are scanning.

TOILET PAPER

HOUSEHOLD

PERSONAL CARE

FEMININE CARE

TOOTHPASTE