If your wife is spending a lot of money on designer handbags you may be wondering if there is a way to satisfy her need to outperform Imelda Marcos and still save some money. It doesn’t help that there are so many different designer handbag brands, like Louis Vuitton, Coach, Michael Kors, and Emma Fox (to name just a very few).
What most experienced shoppers know by now, but which they may not fully appreciate, is that these companies often open stores in so-called “factory outlet” malls. There are two main outlet mall operators in the United States: Premium Outlets and Tanger Outlets.
Outlet malls are rarely built near large cities. You have to drive an hour or more from downtown in many large cities to reach the nearest outlet mall. These malls are often built in classic “strip mall” fashion and their storefronts are nearly all leased to major brand manufacturers for clothing, toys, kitchenware, and accessories.
The outlet stores often serve two purposes (depending on the manufacturer and type of merchandise). They may carry off-season merchandise that failed to sell in general retail malls, but they may also carry slightly lower-quality merchandise produced explicitly for the outlet mall stores. “Lower quality” does not mean the merchandise is poorly made. For example, a designer handbag may be sold in a retail store with a special gold-embossed badge, whereas the badge may be omitted from the outlet store version.
The best time to buy designer handbags at the outlet malls is when the seasons are changing. So at the end of Spring the outlet malls will pick up unsold Spring merchandise from the retail stores, which are bringing in their Summer merchandise. Meanwhile the outlet stores will put their Winter merchandise on clearance.
If your lady can suffer owning a designer handbag six months after it came out in the retail stores she may just fall in love with the factory outlet’s clearance schedule. But be warned: these clearance sale events are now such big business that consumers will line up the night before the stores open and wait hours just to scoop up the latest bargains.
If that isn’t agonizing enough for you, the nearby hotels may be booked in advance by families that need a place to stay while Mom and the girls are shopping for bargains. You’ll want to plan your quarterly outlet clearance shopping trip in advance by learning where to park, where to stay the night, and where to eat with the family. Some families spend 2-3,000 dollars at these events and yet come away with merchandise that would have sold for $10,000 in seasonal retail.
On some occasions the outlet stores will offer temporary sales on designer merchandise, dropping the prices by as much as 15-25% for a weekend. The prices go back up soon afterward. By purchasing a few items during these in-between sales you can create a nifty little stockpile of returnable merchandise (it must not be damaged or used). You can exchange it for comparably priced merchandise anywhere from 3 months to 1 year later. Hence, you may be able to save extra money on limited edition designer handbags by “trading up” at the right time.
Designer handbags are an expensive shopping habit but many women derive great pleasure from the pursuit and collection of these find-crafted accessories. It’s well worth the effort to learn how the nearest outlet mall sales work because in addition to accessories you can often save a lot of money on high-quality shirts, pants, and shoes.