Sales Archive · Holiday Sales · Memorial Day
The last Monday in May: solemn observance first, and the opening of the summer clothing season
Memorial Day, celebrated on the last Monday of May in the United States, is more than a day off work and a chance to fire up the grill — it carries deep historical significance, and its weekend quietly opens the summer clothing season.
Most importantly, this federal holiday honors and remembers the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice while serving in the U.S. military. That observance is the day's meaning, and this guide keeps it first.
Beyond its solemn observance, the Memorial Day weekend has become a landmark for clothing stores: the unofficial start of summer, when warm-weather wardrobes are bought and the season's first big clothing sales run.
Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for the members of the U.S. military who died in service to the nation. Communities mark it with ceremonies, parades and visits to cemeteries and memorials, and many Americans observe a moment of remembrance during the day.
Any honest account of the weekend's shopping sits underneath that fact. The holiday was not created as a sale event, and the retail tradition described below grew up alongside the observance, not instead of it.
The weekend opens the summer wardrobe season. Warm-weather clothing — shorts, t-shirts, summer dresses, swimwear and sandals — moves to the front of stores, and shoppers who have waited through spring buy the core of their summer clothing across these three days.
Retailers answer with the season's first major promotions: summer lines launched with opening offers, and spring clothing — light jackets, knitwear and transitional pieces — marked down as the season turns. For clothing stores, few weekends set up a season as completely as this one.
The weekend's retail weight comes from its calendar place: three days at the exact turn from spring to summer, when travel, outdoor gatherings and warm weather all begin at once and wardrobes have to be ready for them.
That is why the Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends work as bookends — May opens the summer clothing season with new warm-weather lines, and September closes it with their clearance, back-to-school shopping and the turn to fall.
Memorial Day is a remembrance holiday. Ceremonies and the moment of remembrance are the day itself; the shopping weekend runs around them.
Shorts, swimwear, sandals and summer dresses bought on this weekend get a full season of wear — the strongest value case of any sale weekend.
The same weekend clears spring jackets and knitwear at markdown prices while fall shoppers are not yet competing for them.
Shop the SeasonFor clothing searches beyond the holiday weekend, the Apparel Search Amazon clothing guide gathers today's shopping in one place — the year-round counterpart to this guide.
Memorial Day falls on the last Monday in May in the United States. It is a federal holiday honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.
It opens the summer clothing season: warm-weather wardrobes are bought across the three days, summer lines launch with promotions, and spring clothing is marked down as the season turns.
The core of a summer wardrobe — shorts, t-shirts, summer dresses, swimwear and sandals — bought early enough to be worn all season, plus spring pieces at clearance prices.
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