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This was recently discussed on another site. Urban legend only. Several current Target employees verified it is not true.

I've noticed that Target rarely has things go below 70% off. So that's when I tend to buy little knick-knacks for my home. I got an awesome wire sculpture of The Empire State Building for nothing a few months ago. Also, when it's on the endcaps that's when you should grab and buy, because that's it.

I find it's easier to just do the math and see what percentage off the item is currently. I hate math, but it's a good way to see if you're getting a deal.

Folks were talking about this on a local radio station in Denver. They asked listeners for their insider secrets: The Target example came up - as well as Old Navy, Banana, and Gap - same thing only the last number is 7.
I never heard about this until yesterday... so I don't know about the urban legend quality of the info.

The Target usually goes to Goodwills after they leave clearance. Usually the Goodwill prices are higher!

It's pretty much the same for every stores. Staples works in a way that if the SKU (6 digit number under the price) ends with -7, it means the product is at it's cheapest.

7 is a recurring number in the industry. So when you see something priced as, for exemple, 42,97, it's most probably on sale.

I checked the Clearance product at my local Target this evening and the price points were all over. Ending in .50, .98, .74 ...

i remember from my days at Gap that when we needed to "price kill" certain items that were not selling they were marked with a "$__.97" so there may be something to the Target pricing legends.

Supposedly at Banana Republic if a price ends in .99 it will continue to get marked down. A price that ends in .95 means no more markdowns.

For REI .99 means it will continue to be marked down; .83 is the final price.

This is according to the latest issue of 5280 (Denver's city magazine; named so b/c Denver is a mile-high).

The SKU at staples doesn't matter. Whether price is full or on a discount the SKU remains the same. However, Staples clearance - all the prices end in 0. Staples will discount pretty low so be patient unless you really want/need the item. It will probably go lower.

Circuit City is similar. It's just a simple way for the associates to know which items are "clearance" and which are still at full price. Circuit City ends all of their discounted and clearance items in .96, all regular prices items in .99. I was a manager there for a long time. Most retailers are the same way. Now, just because it ends in a clearance price doesn't mean that is the absolute lowest it will go.

I worked at Target for 6 and a half years. Its true.
The only clearance prices that would be different from ending in 4 are the ones that were either repackaged, were missing pieces (i.e. 2 glasses only, originally from a package of 4, because 2 were broken) or were somehow slightly damaged, yet are re-sellable, which is kind of unlikely.
You will rarely see anything marked down below 75% unless it is one of the cases listed above, and even then its quite rare. There had been instances where I purchased product at 90% off, however, Target employees tend to have first dibs on this merchandise because they are the ones that do the markdowns and push the product to the floor.

All the clearance tags at Target have the percent printed on them at the very top in really small numbers.