I have seen few national and number of local retailers going out of business or downsizing and in those cases yes you do see some good sales. However, I have not seen many places where you will get a higher than 60% discount. If you see a higher discount then this is often an indication of an inflated original price that the retailer has recently adjusted. On the other hand, you see a lot of brands such as Gap, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor that have regular sales with discounts reaching up to 40%.

40% off on Banana Republic is solid! I have heard from some of my friends in the UK that they have found success in the United States with stores, and now I can see why! Thanks for the reply and for letting me know!

There are definitely lots of sales on clothing and personal items. Of course, one has to wonder if they were marked up a great deal so they could be put on "sale". Cars are selling well now, so I don't think there are too many bargains there. House prices are still low.

Hi, probably way more detail than you want or need, but here is an in-depth report on the state of US retail from a commercial real estate perspective. http://www.colliers.com/en-US/~/media/Files/Global/ResearchReports/RetailWhitepaperMay2012.ashx

Hope this is of some use!