Factories and warehouses often attach a store to their business. When you group these branded stores under one roof, you have an outlet store, also known as factory outlet, where the stock of manufacturers can be sold directly to the customers. These outlets can be made in a real building or hosted online. Harold Alfond is credited with the idea of retail outlet stores, after he founded Dexter Shoe.
This new concept brought also “professional” shoppers, that can see the differences in price and quality between the general outlet stores and true factory stores. If you want to avoid blemished merchandise or seconds, then go for the factory stores, since in the outlet stores there are higher chances that these merchandise will go unmarked and more often there are manufacturers “overruns”. The stores that sell only one brand of goods probably aren’t factory stores.
The size of the outlets suffered changes in project size compared to the original idea, and the industry got reorganized in early 1990s, when many smaller outlets went dark and newer and well designed centers rose in popularity. The design difference between traditional retail centers and outlet centers is becoming harder to differentiate.
Great deals can be found at those brands that have only a few outlets around the world, like Gucci, Anya Hindmarch or Le Creuset, the high end cookware business from Fresnoy-le-Grand, France. Even the brits come with the ferry in France to have a chance to shop at Le Creuset with 50% price reductions. The brands that spread lots of outlets around the world, like Nike, Banana Republic, usually don’t offer big deals.
Scams can be found in this very profitable industry. Beware of the companies that have outlets with merchandise produced specifically for them…most probably are cheap stuff, not discount deals, with labels different from the original store, with colours reversed or some other brand tricks.
Photo credit: Matt McGee on Flickr