This Labor Day Sale Pick Might Be the Best $20 You Save All Season
Disclosure: I was gifted the Hamilton Beach FlexBrew 5-in-1 Coffee Maker for this post. As always, all opinions are my own.
Labor Day sales can feel like a lot of noise for not a lot of actual savings — 10% off things you weren’t going to buy anyway, “doorbusters” that don’t bust much of anything. So when a genuinely useful home upgrade goes on sale for a real discount, it’s worth flagging — especially one I’ve actually had running on my own counter.
Right now at Target, the Hamilton Beach 12-Cup FlexBrew 5-in-1 Drip Coffee Maker is marked down to $99.99 (regularly $119.99) — a $20, 17% discount — and if your current coffee situation involves either a sad single-serve pod machine or a full carafe you never finish, this is the upgrade that solves both problems at once.
Why This One’s Actually Worth the Cash
The “5-in-1” isn’t just marketing fluff — it genuinely means five distinct ways to get your coffee, and I’ve used all of them at this point:
- Single hot cup with a K-Cup pod
- Single hot cup with your own ground coffee
- Iced coffee, single serve
- Full 12-cup carafe, brewed from ground coffee
- Auto Brew mode, so it’s already made when you wake up or get home
The single-cup brew genuinely comes together in under two minutes, which matters more than it sounds like at 6 a.m. when I’m trying to get out the door. And it manages to do all of this in a surprisingly narrow footprint on my counter — the water reservoir sits on the side or back, whichever fits your space better, so it doesn’t eat up the real estate a full drip machine usually demands.
The Real-Life Case for It
This is the coffee maker version of “I didn’t know I needed this until I had it.” A few scenarios where it earns its keep:
- You live with someone whose coffee order is nothing like yours. One person wants a quick pod, the other wants a full pot — no more owning two machines.
- You host, but not every day. Skip buying a separate 12-cup coffee maker just for when people come over. This one flexes into hosting mode and back into single-serve mode without missing a beat.
- Your mornings are inconsistent. Some days you need coffee out the door in 90 seconds. Other days you actually have time to sit with a full mug. This machine doesn’t force you to pick a lane.
- You’re building out a coffee-bar corner and want it to look intentional. The slim, blacked-out design reads a lot more “curated countertop” than “dorm room appliance.”
The Fine Print Worth Knowing
Real talk, since I like to give the full picture and not just the highlight reel: the single-serve measurements run a little inconsistent for me — what’s labeled as a full cup sometimes brews on the smaller side — and the pod holder retains a bit of water after brewing, so there’s a small drip factor when you pull it out. Neither has been a dealbreaker in my day-to-day use, but I’d rather you know going in. Everything else — the speed, the flexibility, the way it looks on my counter — has genuinely earned its spot in my morning routine.
Bottom Line
Labor Day sales are easy to scroll past, but this is the rare one where the discount, the versatility, and the actual need line up. If your kitchen counter has been overdue for a coffee upgrade, this is a legitimately good time to pull the trigger — just don’t wait too long, since Target’s Labor Day pricing typically wraps up with the holiday weekend.
