Plus Size and Discount Retailers

I’m not opposed to discount retailers at all. For years I’ve buffered my wardrobe with small things I could find from Target, Wal-Mart and these days I supplement my wardrobe with thrift store and even yardsale finds all the time. The reason I advocate saving money for single, expensive pieces is because the clothes from discount retailers are all too often not really well made, and it comes down to knowing what you want and what your style is: you spend $150 once for a really well-made pair of boots that last ten years giving you an annual value of $15/year, or you can spend $35 and wind up spending $350 or more over the course of ten years as the lower-quality discount choice wears out and actually bleeds you dry of the cash you could be using to save up for the good stuff in the first place. I also know quite well that real life doesn’t always work that way. I’ve spilled, burned, set fire to or just plain not had the money for the nice thing I’ve wanted – and paying my rent always takes precedence, as does the simple courtesy of not running around naked.

So I thought it worth sharing what I’ve discovered. I’ve already told you some of the secrets of snaring plus size clothing from Target. And while Wal-Mart comes and goes with its plus size offerings, I do have a few other secrets I’ve discovered from shopping discount stores in the plus section for decades:

1. The in-store plus size clothing selection at both stores gets better at Christmas. I’m assuming it’s because the management figures someone else who loves you is buying for you, so you’re not shopping what the store buyers assume is your self-esteem.

2. Wal-Mart’s online service is actually…well, kind of fantastic. Sometimes the clothing is, too. They also run a lot of shipping deals that enhance the value of the experience as well.

Turnover tends to run faster and higher at Wal-Mart; if you try to shop in the middle of a season, your pickings will be slim – Wal-mart runs in such a way that it rarely has clearance items at all, while Target’s clearance section is a treasured secret.

I also recommend looking particularly at the George and JustMySize brands carried at Wal-Mart. While JMS is often not something I’d wear directly from the catalog, they send completely different clothing to Wal-Mart stores.