Whatever happened to the Blue Light Special?
By kykidd
@kykidd (6812)
United States
August 4, 2009 12:17pm CST
Do you remember when you were a kid, or maybe you were older, when K-Mart had those Blue Light Specials? Not like they have now, where they have the blue light on a flier and this is considered their blue light specials.
No, this was totally different. I remember shopping with my mom, and all of the sudden, there would be an announcement on the PA, and then all of a sudden there was a blue light flashing in the store. It was usually on clothing.
They would have a special sale, just for about 20 minutes. Everyone would rush over to see what they had on sale.
Does anyone else remember these sales? What other types of sales do you remember from stores in during your childhood?
1 response
@veromar (1453)
• Argentina
4 Aug 09
Oh yes! I remember those specials....."Attention K-Mart shoppers!" lol. The whole purpose was to reward people who were already shopping in the store. Blue light specials started disappearing in favor of "weekly" specials. You know, when they started handing out flyers when you walked in the door. There were also "clearance" sales, when a particular business just needed or wanted to get rid of a particular item. Those things were good marketing tools. It made you feel "special" in some way to be a part of that "blue light" turning on while you were in the store! lol. Sad to say, I think industrial greed has killed those kinds of things these days. It costs them too much money just for the hope of attracting repeat customers. Neat question! Haven't thought about those things in years!
@kykidd (6812)
• United States
5 Aug 09
Thanks for your response veromar! I hadn't thought about it in a while, but it just popped in my head a couple of days ago, and I said I must start a discussion about this on myLot.
I am glad some of the stores still have Clearance sales. I have most often used these to do my Christmas shopping all throughout the year. If I start on December 26th, it doesn't seem to break the bank so much to get everyone a little something. LOL
