What Actually Hits its Lowest Price Of The Year in Late September?

Advertiser Disclosure: At Slickdeals, we work hard to find the best deals. Some products in our articles are from partners who may provide us with compensation, but this doesn’t change our opinions. Our editors strive to ensure that the information in this article is accurate as of the date published, but please keep in mind that offers can change. We encourage you to verify all terms and conditions of any product before you apply.

Retail markdown calendars run on floor space, not on weather. Every square foot holding grills and patio sets in September is space a store needs for heaters, holiday decor and Q4 inventory by mid-October, and the fastest way to clear it is to keep cutting until the pallet empties. That creates a narrow window where a handful of categories bottom out for the year, and another set where waiting is the better move.

Here are the products you should try to pick up in September, as well as ones you should probably hold off on.

What is At its Yearly Low Right Now?

Outdoor cooking is the clearest case. Grills, smokers, pellet hoppers and the accessories that go with them get marked down hard once Labor Day passes, and by late September most retailers are into their second or third cut on last season’s models. The tradeoff is selection: you are shopping whatever did not sell, in whatever size and finish is left, and next year’s lineup will not appear until spring. But if you are replacing a grill you already know you want, this is the cheapest it gets.

Patio and outdoor furniture follows the same curve and often falls further, because it is bulky and expensive to warehouse over winter. Cushions, umbrellas and fire pits get folded into the same clearance. Window and portable air conditioners are in the same position. Nobody wants to buy an AC unit in October, which is exactly why they start dropping in price in late September. Buying one now for next summer is a reliable arbitrage play on the retail calendar.

Lawn care sits alongside it. Mowers, string trimmers, leaf blowers and pressure washers all get cleared to make room for snow equipment, though the timing varies sharply by region. Summer apparel, swimwear and sandals are into final markdown, as are above-ground pools and pool chemicals. Camping and hiking gear thins out too, since the outdoor retail season winds down even though the actual hiking season has months left in most of the country.

What to Hold Until Later in the Fall

Televisions are the big one to wait on. Prices step down through November and hit their real floor around Black Friday, then take a second dip ahead of the Super Bowl when retailers clear the previous model year. Buying a TV in September means paying a premium of a few hundred dollars for the privilege of being early. Laptops, tablets and small kitchen appliances follow a similar pattern, with the deepest cuts arriving as loss-leader doorbusters rather than steady discounts.

Toys are the trickiest call. Prices generally soften into December as retailers fight for the same shoppers, but the specific item your kid actually asked for can sell out and reappear only from resellers at a markup. If the item is popular and specific, buy it when you see it at a fair price. If you are filling a stocking with whatever is fun, wait.

The pressure to shop early is real, and it is worth naming as pressure rather than strategy. The National Retail Federation has found that roughly two in five holiday shoppers start browsing and buying before November, and retailers know it, which is why “early holiday deals” show up in September marketing. Shopping early spreads the cost out and beats the shipping crunch, both of which are good reasons. Getting the lowest price of the year is not usually one of them.

How to Tell a Real Clearance Price From a Fake One

Clearance runs on a ladder, not a single cut. Most chains step an item down in stages, often 30%, then 50%, then 70%, and the tag itself frequently tells you where you are: many retailers use consistent price endings for clearance stages, so an item ending in a certain digit signals whether another cut is coming. Store associates in the department usually know the schedule and may tell you if you ask nicely.

Check the price history before trusting the percentage on the sign. A “was” price on a seasonal item is often the spring list price the product never actually sold at once summer started, which makes a 60% markdown look better than the real drop from the price it held in July. Comparing against what the item actually sold for over the past few months is a better test than the discount the tag claims.

Finally, read the return policy before the final markdown tempts you. Deep clearance items are frequently sold final sale, and on seasonal goods that matters more than usual, because a grill or an AC unit bought in September may not get unboxed until next season, long after any return window would have closed. Inspect it now, plug it in now, and confirm every part is in the carton while you still have recourse.

Seasonal clearance moves fast and the good sizes and models disappear first. Set up a Deal Alert for the specific grill, patio set or AC unit you have in mind and you’ll get a notification the moment a matching price gets posted.