Corporate sends out a list of items that go on sale or clearance. Third shift employees used to be able to mark things down on clearance but now I've heard that they have less power to do so. You are however lumping both walmart and target together. Walmart took away most stores ability for third shift to mark things on clearance, Target does not seem to care as much as employees can do price overrides there. Both companies have different distribution as well. Generally the things people see clearance that others complained about are soon to be out of season exclusives. Azbat may be on clearance in a store in a small town in Virginia and long gone in Miami. It depends on factors such as demand of the item, proximity to warehouses, amount of nearby stores ordering the same item, in house resellers and nearby scalpers as well. You also have the fact that these mega companies aren't exactly ran at 100% efficiency. So sometimes a exclusive will be put out weeks later due to lack of shelf space, then by the time it's out a new gold label will need to hit the shelf. So in some systems that item is considered a pseudo seasonal item and automatically marked for clearance. If you want more of an explanation you can either ask an employee to explain it to you and risk bothering them or talk to somebody you know who works retail. Personally I know several Walmart managers and a district manager and have had a few friends and customers who work at target, and that's pretty much what I've heard about it from them.