I have only seen things going on sale at two of my local LBS when they went out of business. Otherwise there was hardly anything on sale. And the few remaining LBS neither have anything on sale. And if, it is mainly clothes which don't fit me anyhow since I wear extra tall clothes. And most of the time I need special parts which they don't carry either. I would need to order them and then pick up at their store. Therefore I can buy online right away and have it delivered to my door.
Otherwise I always keep an eye out for some odd stuff. I have a few older bikes with internal geared hubs which are no longer made. Whenever I find one on ebay I tend to buy it as a spare parts hub since many of the internal components are no longer made. Also have bought tires to stack them away because they are no longer made and replacements from other vendors hardly exist.