What 2 Years of Scanning Home Depot Taught Me About Markdown Timing

Why I Wrote This One

When I started scanning Home Depot two years ago, I’d already read every clearance guide on the internet. “Markdowns happen Monday mornings.” “Tuesdays are the new Monday.” “Check on the first of the month.” I followed all of it. Some of it worked. Most of it was folklore.

Then I started actually logging the data — every SKU, every store, every price, twice a day. After about six months I had enough to see the pattern. After two years, I’m comfortable saying a lot of what I used to repeat was wrong, or right for the wrong reason.

For context: Home Depot operates roughly 2,340 stores in the United States. My scanner tracks the clearance catalog across all of them — about 21,000 actively-clearing SKUs at any moment, refreshed twice daily. The patterns below come from that dataset, not from anecdotes.

Here’s what I actually believe now, with the caveats.

The “Mondays at 9am” Thing Is Mostly True — But Not Why You Think

Conventional wisdom says markdowns drop Monday mornings. My scanner sees the most price changes hitting between 4am and 10am local time, peaking Monday and Tuesday. That part holds up.

But the “why” most people give — that managers do markdowns first thing Monday — isn’t quite right. What I see in the data is that price changes flow from Home Depot’s central pricing system on a rolling schedule, and stores apply them when their morning crew gets to it. Some stores update within an hour of the corporate push. Others take until Wednesday.

The practical takeaway: if you live near a store that updates fast, Monday morning is real. If your local store is slow, your “Monday” arrives Wednesday. I now keep a mental note of which of the three Home Depots I scan locally is the fastest re-tagger. It’s the one in Tempe, if anyone cares.

The First and Fifteenth Are Not Magic

I used to repeat the “check on the 1st” advice. The data doesn’t support it. Across the two years I’ve scanned, the volume of price changes on the 1st of the month is statistically indistinguishable from any other Monday or Tuesday.

What is real:

• Post-holiday Tuesdays see 3–5x the normal markdown volume. December 26 and the Tuesday after Easter are the two biggest single days I’ve recorded.
• Late-August Mondays spike for patio, grills, and garden — the seasonal turnover hits in a 2-week window.
• Mid-January and mid-July see the deepest discounts (largest drop percentage, not the most items).

The 1st of the month is a fine excuse to check, but it’s not where the real money is.

.06, .03, .01 — The Cents Codes Are Real, But Most Items Skip Stages

The cents-ending markdown codes — .06 for 2nd markdown, .03 for deep clearance, .01 for penny — are real and I see them in the scan data every day. (Home Depot’s pricing system uses the cents digit as a signal to store associates and pricing systems; the .03 and .01 endings in particular are recognized internally as “deep” and “final.”) What surprised me is how many items skip stages.

From my two-year sample:

Path	Frequency
Full retail → .06 → .03 → .01	About 22% of clearance items
Full retail → .06 → pulled	About 38%
Full retail → straight to .03	About 15%
Full retail → straight to .01	About 9%
Some other path (sale prices, special buys, etc.)	The rest

If I had to summarize: the cycle exists, but it isn’t a conveyor belt. Roughly two out of five items that hit .06 get pulled from clearance and either reset to regular price or quietly removed. Don’t wait around assuming everything will eventually penny.

The “Twice Daily” Frequency Matters More Than I Expected

I scan every Home Depot store’s clearance catalog twice a day. When I started, I thought once daily would be plenty. Then I noticed something: at heavily-trafficked stores, the most aggressive markdowns sit on the shelf for less than 6 hours before someone clears them out.

I’ve watched a .01 Milwaukee tool go from “in stock” to “0” between the 4am scan and the 4pm scan. If I had only scanned at midnight, I’d never know it existed.

This is the part of the data that humbled me. The conventional advice — “go in once a week, walk the back aisle” — works for .06 items because they linger. It doesn’t work for .01 items because they don’t.

What I Got Wrong

A few things I confidently told friends, that the data later embarrassed me on:

“Pennies happen at end of quarter.” They don’t. I see steady .01 flow year-round. The end-of-quarter signal isn’t there.

“The big stores have more clearance.” Partially true — they have more units — but the percentage of catalog on clearance is roughly identical between a flagship store and a rural one. The rural store is sometimes a better hunt because there’s less competition.

“Husky goes on clearance more than Ryobi.” Wrong, in my data. Ryobi cycles aggressively when generations turn over (e.g. 18V → HP). Husky is steadier and slower.

“Online clearance lags in-store by a week.” Sometimes. But for big-ticket items I’ve actually seen online go first — particularly appliances and patio furniture. There isn’t a single rule.

What I Now Believe (As Of May 2026)

After two years of staring at this, here’s the short version of how I actually shop now:

1. Mondays and Tuesdays are real — scan or visit then if you can.
2. Seasonal transitions matter more than calendar days — patio in August, holiday décor in January, garden in October.
3. Don’t wait for .01 — most items that hit .06 won’t make it that far.
4. Coverage beats timing — knowing every store within 50 miles beats knowing the perfect day at one store.
5. The Home Depot app scanner is still the most reliable price check — even my own data is a snapshot; the app is live.

How I Use My Own Data Today

I built Endless because I wanted exactly this — a feed of every markdown at every store I might drive to, sorted by depth. I use it daily, and I use it on top of (not instead of) walking my closest store on weekends.

What’s changed in two years of running it: I drive less, I buy more deliberately, and I almost never miss a .01 at the three stores I track most.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Home Depot markdowns really happen Mondays?

In my scan data, yes — Monday and Tuesday mornings see the highest volume of price drops. But individual stores apply the changes on their own schedule, so your local store might be a day or two behind. The advice is directionally right, not literal.

How often does Home Depot mark down clearance?

From what I see, Home Depot pushes price changes most days of the week — but the heavy days are Monday and Tuesday. Smaller markdown waves happen Thursday and Saturday. Sundays are the quietest day.

Do all clearance items eventually hit a penny?

No. In my two years of data, only about a fifth of items that enter clearance ever reach .01. Most stop at .06 and either sell through or get pulled. Don’t camp on an item assuming it’ll penny.

Is it worth scanning Home Depot twice a day?

If you’re chasing the deepest markdowns (.03 and .01), yes — those items can sell out within hours. For mid-level clearance (.06), once a week is usually fine.

What’s the single best day to find Home Depot clearance?

December 26. Across two years, no other day comes close for both volume of markdowns and depth of discount. The Tuesday after Easter is a distant second.