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Saturday, February 27, 2010

Sears KidVantage Club

I just had to blog about this because I have talked to 5 moms in the past week who didn't know about it! I don't normally shop at Sears, especially for kids clothes, but I've started to recently! Last year a friend told me about their KidVantage program, and I finally decided to try it out!

Here are the basics:

  • The program is FREE and you sign up in-store at the register. Give them your name, phone number and address and you're ready to go!
  • If your child wears out the clothes or shoes you buy before they outgrow them, return the item with the receipt to the store and they will replace it with a like item for FREE!
  • The program tracks your purchases and when you have spent $100 in kids clothing or shoes, you will get a 15% off coupon for your next purchase.
I recently tried this out myself. Last April I bought some khakis and jeans for H and G on clearance. I spent $7.99 per pair, which is more than if you buy them at Goodwill or a second-hand store, but I wanted to try out the program. I figured if they didn't wear out, great, they would just get passed down to the next girl in line! :-) They both wore their new pants for the rest of spring, only occasionally through the summer, and then pretty regularly through the fall and winter. At the beginning of February, H came to me with a hole in her khakis. Time to try out the program!

I took them to the store with the receipt (no tags), and they immediately asked if I was doing a KidVantage exchange. They told me to go back and try to find the same pants. Since I had bought them on clearance last spring, I figured there wasn't a chance, and I was right. So I found another pair of khakis in the same size and brought them up. I explained that these were the only khakis in the same size I could find (and I was worried, since they were $12.99 and I had only paid $7.99). She said, "okay!" and rang them up for me and I got them for FREE! Nice, because these had an adjustable waist while the originals hadn't--though they were plain instead of having gold embroidery, which H had liked.

Not two weeks later, G got a hole in her jeans. (It couldn't have happened the same week, could it?) Back to Sears I went. I couldn't find the same jeans, but I found some that were very similar on the clearance rack on sale for $7.49. No problem! While I was there, I bought some jeans in size 4, 5, and 6, one for each girl, for $4.99 each!

I haven't tried the program for shoes, yet, because honestly, I have forgotten to look. Usually when I am at the mall I have all 4 girls with me and time is limited!

One tip--I didn't think I would remember which pants were from Sears (though surprisingly, I did), so when I got home, I took a picture of the items with the tags still on laid out on the floor. I printed out the picture and kept it with my receipt in the KidVantage flyer they had given me.

Have you used the Sears KidVantage program before? Do your kids notoriously wear holes in the knees of their pants? How about shoes? I've heard that Shopko has a similar policy, but am not familiar with it--anyone want to weigh in?

2 comments:

Joel and Jenn said...

Hi Jessica!
I'm glad you've discovered the KidVantage thing at Sears! I'm always shocked when I find people that don't know about it. I have 4 kids - 3 of them are boys! I have been doing the Kidvantage thing with them for about 8 years now and have replaced hundreds of dollars worth of jeans and shoes! They can put holes in jeans in about 1 months time. I have exchanged one $9.99 pair of jeans at least three times on multiple pairs of jeans! I buy all my boys' jeans and shoes at Sears. The best deals, of course, are getting the shoe or jean on clearance and then going back and getting a new pair that would have cost more. One time my son went through three pairs of shoes while in the same shoe size and they kept replacing them.

One thing that I've learned is that if you buy TKS brand shoes or the Toughskins brand jeans you don't need the receipt to get the exchange. This is because those are the Sears store brand and you can't get them anywhere else. Whenever I buy something I write on the top of the receipt a note to myself so I know what shoes/pants they are. I'll write something like: Luke Red and Black Skecher shoes Size 3. Then I can flip through my Sears Receipts Envelope and usually find the right one!

Another tidbit of info for you that is at Sears is LandsEnd. LandsEnd is more expensive and better quality clothes and shoes, but they stand behind their merchandise for adults too! Everything is guaranteed to last! If you watch their clearance racks you can find some great deals. My hubby got a winter coat last year there for $15. They will replace any of their products for any age person. I bought a pair of jeans there on clearance for $15 for me and the sales gal said that if in ten years they get a hole to bring them back. If I have the receipt I'll get my money back or they'll replace as near as they can. I had a coat from them for a year and then the zipper got stuck and they gave me my money back in full. I got my daughter a swim suit there and after a year of hard swimming I took it back because the elastic wasn't holding up as well and they refunded my money in full. I have found LandsEnd boots and shoes for my kids on the clearance racks too.

Just thought I'd share. Happy shopping! Jenn

Anonymous said...

You might also writ on the bac of the size tag a "s" to mark them as sears jeans. I have done thi sfor Victoria's pants ans shoes.

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