Memorial Day 2012: The Best Memorial Day Sales

May 25, 2012 — -- intro: If you are on the hunt for the best Memorial Day weekend shopping deals, you might want to get a head start Friday and Saturday, said Tamra Feldman, vice president of marketing for the personalized shopping deals site, Shop It To Me.

After analyzing over 693,000 online deals through 2011 and over 8,000 from Memorial Day weekend last year, Shop It To Me, which provides users with personalized updates of items in their sizes with their preferred brands, found that the best markdowns are Friday and Saturday. The discounts then tapered off on Sunday and Monday.

While there will are still sales later in the weekend, the quantity of sales were two to three times larger on Friday historically compared with the rest of the holiday weekend.

"The good stuff is going to go quickly. If consumers can shop today and tomorrow I think they'll find some fantastic items," she said, adding that the sale items are mostly summer wear and products.

Because some sales began this year as early as Wednesday, the best deals may be flying off shelves earlier than expected, Feldman said.

For those who prefer to honor the nation's veterans this holiday weekend away from shopping crowds, many online retailers offer free shipping and returns, such as Nordstrom, Zappos and Piperlime.

Here are some of the best shopping deals pulled together from Shop It To Me and ABC News:

quicklist: title: Ann Taylortext:

Shoppers get an extra 40 percent off women's clothing styles during Ann Taylor's Summer Kick-off Sale. Ends Monday.

quicklist:title: Black Lapel.comtext: In time for wedding season, online custom suit tailor, Black Lapel, offers men's wear with free shipping and a "Flawless Fit Promise." Black Lapel's custom-tailored Solid Navy suit, at $449, is sold at less than half the price of Brooks Brothers' off-the-rack 1818 Madison line which starts at $998. Both are made of the same 100 percent wool fabric.

quicklist: title:Bloomingdale'stext: Take an extra 20 percent off select sale and clearance items with code SALE20 online at department store Bloomingdale's Big Brown Bag Sale. Exclusions apply, see site for details. Ends Monday.

quicklist: title:Club Monaco

text: Free shipping over $175 on all online orders for men and women. Ends Tuesday.

quicklist:title: Dealery.com text: Deals site Dealery.com features Memorial Day weekend deals, including $59 for four pounds of large shrimp, including taxes and shipping from Nature's Prime Organics, normally $145. The site also features a $25 deal for two AMC movie tickets plus a $50 Restaurant.com gift card, a $50 value.

quicklist: title:Endless by Amazontext:

Get up to 50 percent off select styles, including Frye, Sperry Top-Sider, Seychelles and other brands at Endless, Amazon's independent shoes and accessories online store which launched in 2007. Ends Monday.

quicklist: title:Gaptext:

Shop the Memorial Day Sale at Gap.com and save up to 40 percent off select styles. Ends Monday.

quicklist: title:Histoire.comtext:

Get 30 percent off and free shipping with code WEEKEND at Histoire, an online retailer of socially conscious goods, which means "story" in French. Sale items include hand-woven Linen Square Pillows for 65 percent off, an antique glass candle stick for $9.80 and a T-light holder for $6.30. Ends Tuesday.

quicklist: title: Home Depottext:Home improvement retailer, Home Depot, launched its Memorial Day weekend sale on Thursday. Its national advertisement features sales on everything from paint ($5 off a gallon and $20 off five gallons), barbecue grills ($199 for a $399 Nexgrill gas grill), briquettes ($5.88 for Kingsford 2-pack ), drill kits ($99 Ryobi One+ Lithium-Ion) and more.

quicklist:title: JCPenneytext: Retailer JCPenney begins offering its best prices on the first and third Friday each month until they are sold out. Its best-priced items offered on Friday include $17 dresses, normally $35 to $40, and $12 for men's Arizona jeans. JCPenney.com offers free shipping over $50 and free shipping to stores with no minimum. Code: JCPSHIP.

quicklist: title:J.Crew

text:Get an extra 30 percent off spring sale items with code LOVEIT at JCrew.com for men, women and children. Ends Monday.

quicklist: title: LOFT (Ann Taylor)

text: Ann Taylor's LOFT is featuring an "Everything under the sun $29 and under" event for women. Ends Monday.

quicklist: title:Luckytext: Lucky brand is offering an extra 30 percent off sale jeans, no code needed. Ends Monday.

quicklist: title: Macy'stext: Retailer Macy's is offering buy one get one free pillows, dresses for 25 to 50 percent off, men's suits for 50 percent off and more. Online shoppers can use MEMDAY for further discounts. Macy's Memorial Day sale kicked off Thursday and ends Monday in store and online.

quicklist: title:Madewelltext:Get an extra 20 percent off sale, plus free shipping on all orders with code WEEKENDER. Some exclusions apply. Ends Monday.

quicklist: title:Maidenformtext:Get 25 percent off site wide at the women's intimates retailer's online store. Discount applied at checkout. Ends Monday.

quicklist: title:Nordstromtext:Nordstrom's biggest sale of the season, its Half-Yearly Sale for women and kids, is online and in stores. Ends Sunday.

quicklist: title:Ralph Laurentext:Enjoy 25 percent off select men's & women's styles, plus free shipping with code MAYFS12. Ends Tuesday.

quicklist: title:Rugby by Ralph Laurentext:Get 25 percent off polos, shorts and swimwear, plus an extra 25 percent off already-reduced styles, no code needed. Ends Tuesday.

quicklist: title:Saks Fifth Avenuetext:Receive $50 off your $250 sunglasses purchase with code SUN2012 (valid for all women's sunglasses). Ends Saturday.

quicklist: title:Steve Maddentext:Spend $75 and get 20 percent off with code STOCK20. Spend $100 and get 25 percent off with code STOCK25. Ends Tuesday.

quicklist: title: Targettext: The Shops at Target includes five design partnerships for men, women and girls which launched May 6. The collections aren't having Memorial Day sales but shoppers can snag deals like on the clothing boutique collection by The Webster. Actress Jessica Alba's daughter, Honor, was spotted on Thursday wearing The Webster at Target girl's tie smocked dress in palm print which is $16.99.

quicklist: title:Theorytext:Enjoy $50 off any purchase of $250 or more with code SUMMER50. Ends Monday.

quicklist: title:Trina Turktext:

Shop the Trina Turk Memorial Day Sale and get up to 60 percent off. Ends Monday.