January is not just clearance month anymore. It's winter-season full-price selling, because Christmas and holiday merchandising is really promotional. These days, that's when you see the really deep discounts.

Retailers know that many people will wait until after Christmas for the big purchases. So they don't want to go too far into the holidays with excess inventory that they eventually will heavily discount.

Retailers have very big orders from vendors ready for delivery right before and right after Christmas. They want to look really, really good. That's when they come out with the richest displays of winter merchandise, and it culminates with Valentine's Day.

With Christmas Eve falling on a Friday, sales have the potential of being very intense.