The Best Time To Shop At Menards

Menards has become a household name in the retail space due to its low-priced home improvement goods. Unlike other large home improvement retail giants such as Lowes and Home Depot, Menards is the only one that is still privately owned and run by the Menard family, per Hardware Retailing. Because of its family-owned status, Menards is often able to sell its products at lower prices, as they reportedly demand low prices from suppliers while also manufacturing many of its building materials themselves, such as roofing, siding, and doors.

Since Menards has earned itself such a reputation in the home improvement sector, it might come as a surprise to know that you can buy a lot more than lumber there; as they sell a wide variety of other goods worth stocking up on, such as groceries, pet supplies, jewelry, clothes, toys, and more. With so much to offer, shoppers will be glad to know that there are a lot of ways to save money on everything from their home improvement projects to their groceries, especially if they know when and how to shop.

Shopping at Menards during their popular 11% rebate promotion is perhaps the best time to do so, as the savings you can score at the register during these sales can be pretty significant –- especially if you are buying expensive materials or big-ticket items. Per The Family Handyman, if shoppers mail in a rebate form, they can earn 11% back on nearly everything in the store in the form of store credit that can be redeemed on a future purchase.

Menards is understandably very tight-lipped about when these rebate promotions will take place, as they don't want advertising an upcoming sale to encourage shoppers to hold off on all of their purchases until the sale. Because of this, the 11% rebate events aren't typically announced or advertised until the day of the sale. However, The Family Handyman notes that while you may not be able to know exactly when a rebate promotion will take place, if you pay attention, you can start to notice patterns in the sale schedule –- with sales popping up as often as every two weeks sometimes.

If you are lucky enough to stumble upon one of these 11% rebate promotions, the trick is to use the voucher you earn from it during the next rebate promotion, as the rebate is stackable since you are allowed to use your in-store voucher anytime.

If you are a Menards Big Card holder, you will get coupons sent to you with your monthly bill, per Shopping Kim. Each cardholder's monthly statement usually contains a booklet of coupon codes for various promotions and savings throughout the store and online.

If you are not a store card holder and aren't in the market to become one, Menards also accepts manufacturer coupons, which can be stacked with rebates and even used on top of sale and clearance markdowns. According to the coupon policy listed on their website, Menards also accepts competitor coupons, and while they are not valid on sale, clearance, or promotional items, they are still stackable with other coupons and with the 11% rebate. So, if you have coupons of any kind, the best time to use them is when you are redeeming your 11% rebate voucher, as this will help you score the maximum savings possible.

Menards is unique from many other retail stores as there's no one-stop clearance section. Instead, they have clearance items within the sections you'd normally find the items in, marked with red clearance tags, per Kim Rowley of Saving K. Oftentimes, these clearance items are also items that qualify for the 11% rebate.

According to Saving K, one of the best places to look for clearance items in-store are next to the stand with the weekly ad flyers, which are usually the first thing you see upon entering the store. She also suggests shopping the aisle end caps that are not facing the main aisle and the very back wall of the store (where you can find big clearance items such as cabinets and appliances that might be discontinued, dinged, or dented).

You can even score clearance deals in the paint department by shopping from the occasional selection of mistinted paint that sells for only $9 per gallon. This selection of paint is often made up of customer returns or cans that the paint department may have accidentally mixed with the wrong color.

Though you typically cannot order any clearance products online, if you visit the Ray's List Clearance and Bargains page on the Menards website, you can see a list of limited-time offers, open-box sales, closeout deals, and clearance items available at your local store.