As much as I love shopping, I also love a great deal. I am also lucky enough to live near a couple of outlets and so I frequent them like the plague to score awesome discounts. Although outlet prices can be lower, you may not necessarily get as great of a deal as you thought every time you head off to the outlets. Over the years, people have gradually exposed more of the fashion industry's dirty secrets of outlet stores.
Many companies are now realizing that there is a huge market for outlet sales and will score as much profits off of this trend as possible. This means that "deal" you found on that jacket from J. Crew that looks like the one in the retail store this season is not the same. In fact it's likely to be the same design but made of a cheaper material, thus justifying the outlet price. A wool jacket in a retail store can easily turn into a viscose/nylon (or some other cheaper material) jacket in the outlet. So what's the real difference and why does this matter? Clothes purchased at the outlet can be of cheap quality, so cheap that it may not last as long as their retail counterparts.
One example of these differences is J. Crew vs. J. Crew Factory stores. During this season we can buy a blazer from the retail store which is priced at $198 or we can buy a similar looking blazer from the factory store for $108. The price difference makes the outlet version sound like a steal, but let's first take a look at both items before deciding. The retail store blazer looks like the photo below. The cut is quite feminine and slim. It's made of wool. From the photos of the model and the blazer alone, it's a pretty good looking coat.
Now if we compare this to a similar coat found in the outlet, we'll see quite a number of differences. Some striking things to notice are that awesome box-cut they have going on. It looks like something you'd find in your father or boyfriend's closet. The buttons are far from shiny compared to the retail version and this blazer is not made of wool. In fact it's a cheaper material, a viscose/nylon/elastane mix. The photos do not make too much of a difference but if they were put side by side, the feel, texture, and look would be very noticeable.
But what about the more expensive J. Crew Factory blazers like this one pictured below for $148? There is wool in this coat, but it's also a blend of other things as well, poly and viscose. Although it definitely looks better than the first blazer, a closeup of the coat also reveals a few things that would make me reconsider buying it. First of all, the material in the photos look cheap. It's especially noticeable for the lighter colored blazer (pictured below) and it looks almost like a blend between typical blazer material and sweater material. Second, take a closer look at the seams where the shoulders are. It's off like a bad tailoring job.
Given everything mentioned here, if you're paying $148 for a blazer, you might as well buy the one at the retail store for full price and have it look more than half decent. So the important lesson learned when it comes to outlet shopping is to be aware of what you are actually buying. This is not necessarily the case of all clothing at the outlets, but there are a good number of cases like these.
**Note: All photos used were from the J. Crew (www.jcrew.com) and J. Crew Factory (www.factory.jcrew.com) website. I do not own any rights to them.
