A lot of people seem confused on how Target's sales works. Since I've worked there for far too long, I'll give you a breakdown on the terminology on those 3X5 signs:
SALE: Sunday to Saturday sale. No exceptions unless they run the item AGAIN in the following week (which does happen). Red in color. Should be featured in the weekly ad which is national.
AS ADVERTISED: This sign is more of a trick than anything. It looks exactly like a sale sign but it's the regular price and is an item featured in the ad.
PRICE CUT: A permanent reduction in price. Yellow in color. This is a regional thing (usually) but it's RARELY put in ads.
TEMPORARY PRICE CUT: Fancy words for saying "A sale that lasts longer than a week." Yellow AND red in color. They can vary from 2 weeks to over a month. They have dates on them on the very bottom. They are usually advertised that first week, especially if it's a popular item. Should be a nation-wide thing.
CLEARANCE: Rarely advertised. Red in color. Usually holiday clearance is advertised. Random items can be put on clearance out of the blue. It is the only truly wildcard between every individual Target. Some may have the same items on clearance but for different prices. This is infact one of the reasons Targets stopped doing price matches because stores had to honor other Target's clearance prices. If a smaller Target recieves an item it doesn't usually carried (lets say a TV model from a bigger Target), it will go clearance since there's not a space on the floor for it. I've seen crazy telescopes and intruments from Super Targets returned to our small Target, and sure enough they go clearance.
EVEN LOWER THAN ADVERTISED: Obviously not advertised. Blue in color. We get these all the time and it's proof of the price cut thing I was telling you about. Certain DVD's were on sale for 9.50 when we normally carry them at 9.44 because certain regions inflate prices.
INSTANT SUBSTITUTE: Obviously not advertised. Blue in color. When a sale item is out, we are supposed to put up a raincheck and an appropriate substitute. If that's the case, you can't ask someone "Well, can I substitute for this?" since something is already set. If the Target store is REALLY on the ball, you won't get the option to ask. The substitutes can be different between certain Targets since it honestly is arbitrary to a point. The only guildline is to set it to something as similar to the item, and at the same price point. It just takes the original item's percentage off the new item.