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Tablets, portable speakers, smaller TVs, and laptop accessories rotate fast at Costco because warehouse space per unit is high and refresh cycles are quarterly. The 32 to 43-inch TV segment in particular sees deep markdowns at quarter-end as Costco clears space for the next manufacturer pallet.

A unit listed at $429 mid-quarter often drops to $199 to $239 in the final 10 days of the quarter. Beyond that, the unit either sells through or rotates out to a liquidation channel.

Outdoor furniture in fall, indoor furniture in spring. Costco doesn't want to inventory accent chairs or sectional couches across two seasons. The clearance markdowns tend to follow a pattern: 30% off six weeks before season-end, 50% off three weeks before, and final clearance at 70%+ in the last 10 days.

The catch: the clearance unit count is often miscounted by store associates. Calling ahead to confirm in-stock at clearance pricing saves a wasted drive.

Wi-Fi mesh kits, security cameras, and smart speakers cycle out fastest because manufacturer refresh cycles are 12-18 months. Costco won't carry the same SKU through two product generations. Six weeks before a successor SKU launches, the existing unit hits clearance.

The functional reality: the “outgoing” SKU is usually identical to the new one with minor packaging changes. The performance is the same. The clearance price is often 50-60% below the launch price of the successor.

Cat trees, dog crates, and aquarium starter kits don't move through Costco at the volume of food and treats. When they don't move, they get marked down hard. A $200 cat tree often hits $79 in the last 14 days of the quarter.

The category is small enough that Costco buyers don't bother negotiating reorder volumes for slow-moving SKUs. They clear, then move on.

Closet systems, garage shelving, and tool chests cycle on a similar quarterly basis. Pricing on these tends to drop 40-50% in the final month of the quarter and almost always reflects a real markdown vs an artificial sale.

Costco's “.97 ending” pricing convention is most reliable in this category — when you see a price ending in .97, it's almost always the rock-bottom price for that unit until the next quarter.

Costco's fiscal year ends the last Sunday in August. Quarter-ends fall in late November, late February, late May, and late August. The 10-14 days before each quarter-end are when the meaningful markdowns appear.

For deals that don't make it to quarter-end clearance — meaning units that get pulled before the public markdown hits — the inventory often goes to direct-to-consumer fulfilment partners who clear at a steeper discount than Costco ever advertises. Those deals don't hit Costco shelves; they hit small Shopify stores within 4-6 weeks of the original wholesale cancellation event.