I searched the furniture department at Crate & Barrel in the Galleria last weekend for a new entertainment center. I was really "just looking" since I haven't gotten rid of the $2,000 entertainment center monolith that looms over my small living room. No one wants those big shipping-crate-sized things anymore. So I am not seriously considering a new entertainment center until I know if I can get anything for my old one. I'll put it on Craig's List eventually.

Back to C&B. So I see this beautiful Morris sideboard made of cherry that's on clearance. (I'm thinking maybe I could put my flat panel TV on top of it, just like a center.) Regularly $2,600, it's on clearance as a floor sample for $1,299. Knowing that's a pretty good markdown, I asked a salesperson how long it had been at that price. "About a month," she said. That's a long time in markdown land, so I asked if it might take a new markdown soon.

That's when she said that markdowns are usually taken on Mondays. But she went one step further and said that she could take my name down and call me when it was marked down further. Three days later (Tuesday) a store rep called to say, oddly enough, that the woman who took down my name no longer works there, and that the sideboard had been marked down to $1,000. She also mentioned that one other person was interested in it so to act quickly if I was interested. (I wasn't--I took home the measurements and it's too long.)

There aren't many retailers that will still offer a callback service. I applaud Crate & Barrel for doing so. Just a reminder that even if a retailer won't do callbacks, ask how long the item has been marked down and if a new markdown is expected soon.

What other retailers have you discovered that are forthcoming about markdowns? Share away.