Product discounts / new database?

my apologies ahead of time if this has already been asked, but I could not find the answer.

I have a client that has an online store with over 4000 products and they are starting to do some heavy closeouts. Customers are also in two different pricing groups. Bookstores get an additional 20% from retail and wholesale customers get an additional 50%.

So my question is this...

What would be the easiest way for BOTH customers to be able to purchase products in a bargain price category. They would also like the items to be able to be discount priced differently, but there are too many products making that a little difficult. So we made a closeout category at 75% off. The only problem with that is that it may be confusing to customers as it only shows 50% off until checkout time and then add the additional 25%.

Would it be possible to make another database for closeout products only and do not allow the groups any discounts?

Has anyone else successfully dealt with the situation before?

The web site is https://www.swansoninc.com and is currently running zc 1.2.6

tia...

0be1