Winners & HomeSense Employees Revealed How You Can Get Deals & Discounts Even Without Sales
Winners and HomeSense are known for offering savings on products like clothes, accessories, home decor, furniture, books and even food.
But you might have noticed that these stores in Canada don't have sales like other retailers regularly do so former employees have revealed how you can still get deals and discounts.
At Winners and HomeSense, there is a constantly changing selection of top brands, home furnishings, fashions and more available to shoppers.
Prices for those products are typically 20% to 60% below the regular prices you find at full-price retailers like department stores.
That means you can get savings just by shopping there even without sales.
Both HomeSense and Winners are "off-price retailers" so generally there aren't any promotions, sales or coupons because items are already at cheaper prices.
But that doesn't mean you can't find even more savings at these discount Canadian retailers without sales.
Narcity recently spoke with former Winners employee Greg* and former HomeSense employees Heather* and Joy* to get their tips, tricks and hacks for getting deals when shopping at Winners and HomeSense!
Shop at certain times
You can get the best deals at Winners and HomeSense by shopping at certain times during the day.
Greg revealed that employees go through the store each morning around the time the store opens to apply price reductions to products.
"If you want to get to the markdowns, you have to be there right as soon as the store opens," he said.
It's a little different at HomeSense stores though.
Heather shared that her store got five to seven product deliveries Monday through Friday, so employees were always putting new items on display.
"But, in general, most things would be brought out during the morning. So, 11 a.m. would probably be the ideal time to go if you're looking to browse," she said.
Joy added that most items will be put on display in stores by 1 p.m. or 2 p.m.
If you're looking for furniture, afternoons — typically between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. — are the best time to find new furniture pieces because employees typically have to build it in the back, according to Heather.
Shop these sections and departments
There are quite a few sections and departments at Winners and HomeSense that are recommended by former employees.
"HomeSense has some of the best prices I've seen for larger canvases," Heather revealed.
You can find more savings in the stationery section, especially if you're looking for other art supplies.
"Stationery is the best, hands down," Joy said. "If they don't know where to put it, it goes into stationery."
Ex-employee Greg suggested that you shop the jewelry and chocolate sections at Winners.
"I think the jewelry section is totally slept on," he said.
Items in that department are often way cheaper than but still have good quality which means you could even buy them as gifts.
"It just looks nice," Greg shared. "Just take the tag off. Someone doesn't need to know it's $20 — it looks like $60 jewelry!"
Also, the former employee noticed when he worked at the discount retailer that a bag of Lindor chocolates was $9 at a nearby Shoppers Drug Mart but at least $3 cheaper at Winners.
Learn the seasonal cycles
If you're looking to save more money at Winners or HomeSense, Greg said that you should learn your store's seasonal sale cycles.
When you know when summer products, back-to-school items, holiday products and more go out, you can find great deals if you time your shopping trip right.
Get details from HomeSense and Winners employees
Former HomeSense employee Joy said that if you're nice to associates at the store you're shopping at, "they will make it worth your time."
"The associates get put through a lot. If you're nicer to them, they'll be more inclined to tell you the tips of that particular store."
Greg shared that you can also ask employees to double-check if an item has a reduced price that hasn't been marked on the tag.
Each morning, Winners workers go through every section of the store and scan each item to find out if it has been reduced in price.
It's possible that some products get missed or put in the wrong section and they're not marked down. So, you can ask an employee to confirm the price.
Look for the red stickers
Now, if you don't know that you should look for the red stickers when shopping at Winners then you could be missing out on huge savings.
Those red stickers mean that an item has been "reduced."
Also, according to former Winners employee Greg, one of the retailer's best secrets is final clearance.
If you want more items at even cheaper prices, final clearance is the time of year when products are discounted to around $1 or $2 at Winners.
"You can find some pretty fun stuff. Maybe not necessarily what you're going to wear every day, but some funky outfits," Greg said.
Final clearance happens in January and February!
Return items for refunds
"Most things that you buy at Winners, HomeSense or Marshalls, you can return to whatever store you want as long as you have the receipt," Greg said.
There is a limitation to that Winners and HomeSense hack though, the former employee shared. You can't return HomeSense furniture to a Winners or Marshalls store that doesn't have a furniture section, for example.
"But know if you are returning it to a different kind of store, it will take longer because the [stores'] systems aren't necessarily connected," he said.
Winners and HomeSense returns get you a refund within 10 days when you bring in the original register receipt and tickets attached to the products.
You could get your refund either as the tender you paid for it or as a gift card.
After 10 days, you'll only be able to get money back as a gift card if you have the original register receipt and tickets attached to the items.
You can get store credit or an exchange for any items returned with gift receipts.
So, that means you can save money by returning products that you thought you wanted but ended up not needing.
*Names have been changed to maintain confidentiality. Narcity has verified their identity.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
