Boden and Mini Boden Clearance Sale Review (Boston, February 7, 2015)

Saturday, February 7, 2015

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If you want to read a few of my other reviews of past  Boden sales, you can find them  here,  here and  here. Today I arrived at the Hynes around 7. At the last sale (September 2014) I had been pleasantly surprised to see a shorter-than-usual line when I arrived - but that wasn't the case today. By 7 am there were already about 50 women lined up. I happened to arrive at the same time as several women from one of my facebook shopping-groups, so we all chatted for the 3 hours until the sale opened up. This made the time seem to pass by so quickly! I was somewhat nervous about whether or not we would get in on the first intake, but we did! Just after 10 the doors opened and I went running for the boys table as usual (I have two boys, ages 5 and 7). I was immediately disappointed when I arrived at the boys table and saw... spots of bare table. Normally the tables are covered with enormous piles of clothing. Over the past three sales, the amount of boys clothing seems to have been decreasing, but this is the first time I've been really disappointed in the selection of clothes in the sizes I want. I was able to grab a few nice things, but only because I was one of the first people to arrive at the table. At all the past sales, there has been an abundance of large size (9+) boys clothing - but at this one, everything was gone from the table within the first 3 minutes of the sale, and the concentration seemed to be smaller sizes. I heard from several people that the girl's selection was good this time, and that table had MUCH higher piles when I came in.


Best dress I found today, the Dartmouth Tunic for $40. Score!


But there was good news. Since I spent so little time at the boys table, I quickly moved on to women's, and there the selection was wonderful! In total I bought 4 dresses, a cashmere-blend cardigan, and a top for me. For my boys I bought one sweater, one hoody, one pair of pjs, two long sleeved tops, one pair of lined cotton pants, and one pair of lined jeans. My best find of the day was the Dartmouth Tunic Dress I found in my size for $40 - which is currently featured on Boden's site for $148. Almost all the dresses I tried on (even a few that I rejected for one reason or another) fit really nicely - I find that the brand in general is wonderful in terms of being flattering on a range of different body types. I saw lots of other ladies getting some gorgeous things that looked great on them!

This time I didn't have as much luck with the discard piles as I've had in the past. I found all but one of my items myself, on the tables. Yet again I got distracted and forgot to take photos inside the hall of all the craziness - but here is a photo taken by Amy Wu of some of the shoppers (with their giant shopping bags! Don't forget those.)



Below are the current prices - some things (hats, pjs, backpacks, socks, underwear...) do not seem to have an assigned price, so there is some variation in what people have been charged. If anyone from Boden is reading this, I would really encourage them to fix this issue by assigning a price to every category of item!! I was told that an item was $15, and my friend bought it and was charged $5. It's very frustrating as a buyer to hear that different people are paying different prices for things. Another example - last time I bought a sweatshirt and was charged $25 (I was told it "counted as a jacket") - at this sale, all kids' hoodies were $15 and apparently counted as tops.




All in all I am excited about my great buys today - but I hope that the decreasing amount of children's items is not a trend that continues. Please Boden, go back to the old method and send more kid's items to Boston!

I will definitely be going to the next sale in September (for a schedule of upcoming Boden sales, including the September 2015 date, check my webpage listing). I have a bunch of tips listed on that page about what to wear, what to bring, and where to park (scroll down on the page). If you are interested in seeing discussions of each Boston Boden sale, get $5 off coupons for each sale, or find out who to contact about working at a sale, join my facebook group (and message me.)

Last but not least, if you want MORE discounted Boden and Mini Boden and you don't feel like leaving your house, here are a few ways to save money on Boden right at home.
  1. To get regular updates on Boden coupon codes (I never personally order without at least a 20% off code) - join Sample Sale Mom Deals on Facebook, as I regularly post the current coupon codes.   
  2. Online discounter Zulily sometimes has Boden sales at up to 50% off catalog prices. You can also search in their search bar any time and they often have a few Boden items on sale. To be alerted about upcoming Boden sales on Zulily, you can click the white heart next to "Boden" on the site so that it turns red. They also have sales on plenty of other awesome brands - some of my favorites include Hanna Andersson, Tea Collection, Kate Quinn Organics, Keen & Sophie Catalou.
  3. Several other sites now occasionally sell Boden "vouchers" - For $35 you can buy a $50 Boden voucher good on anything on the site. There is usually a one or two per household restriction, per voucher sale. Sites that sell Boden vouchers include Zulily, and Rue La La, and I post all of these sales by the day they start on my facebook group
  4. If you love Mini Boden, check out Hatley, which is high-quality, (read the reviews) to-die-for cute, and can be much less expensive. 
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