Why outlet stores aren’t as good a deal as they seem

Here's the secret they don't want you to know.

Outlet stores began in the 1930s as a place for excess and damaged goods to be sold employees. As outlet stores grew they began offering the same goods to non-employees.

Today, shoppers believe they can purchase excess designer clothes from last season at a good price in outlet stores like Nordstrom Rack or Saks OFF 5TH. Wrong. The little-known truth about outlet stores is that most of their merchandise was actually made to sell only at outlets.

Some brands—including Kate Spade New York, Michael Kors, Gap, Banana Republic— are being sued for their misleading retail price comparison on the merchandise tag.

[SunyiSideUp]

I always thought outlet clothes didn't look or feel the same.

[BombasticLove]

Thank you for doing this, it is so frustrating buying products with brand names and finding out they are worse than Walmart quality.

[neurospizz]

Damn scammers everywhere. Not just the girl scouts any longer

[zayag]

Wait so the brand name shirt that I got for $20 wasn't really brand name?!
Meh... I think I'll survive.

[ukeleledotlove]

If people didn't care so much about brand recognition they wouldn't be fooled into buying worthless junk for tons of money. I don't feel bad for the persons who's expensive shirt wasn't sold at an even more expensive price at a brand name store.

[drink]

Not sure if I should show this to my wife. She may stop shopping at outlets and start shopping at the real stores.

[thatdamnhoney]

As a person who works in the industry, I'd like to add my confirmation of this practice. I've worked in these design departments before. This is totally common and the outlet designers are also commonly a different department entirely, from the main store. ☹️

[IamYou]

$350 for an outfit....that's half my fucking rent. I will go naked, thanks but no thanks.

[BoogsterSU]

Not to mention that most clothing sold in the United States were made in SWEATSHOPS overseas, mostly in Asia.

I'm an idiot for buying stuff made there.

[chty]

the goal is to be rich, not look rich

[seewendy]

I was talking about this with my husband the other day. Companies lie to customers all the time and the government allows it, because it gets people to shop more, so that we pay taxes on the purchases. It sucks because they also do this at grocery stores. They manipulate consumers with sneaky marketing.

[amshermansen]

Funny how outlet doesn't mean any of this here in Denmark - Here it's just a fancy way of saying "we bought a ton of retail clothes from a bankrupt store, so we're selling it cheap with no refunds!"

[CatBatss]

As someone who has worked at Nordstrom Rack, I can guarantee that maybe only 25% of the merch u see there is actually from the main store

[LarlemMagic]

I got a full navy-style wool coat from Nordstroms for 50$. I've had it for two years and the seams are still holding. I don't feel ripped off.
Have to shop for absolute value, not relative value.

[Snarfindorf]

Over $60 for a fucking shirt? The most I've EVER spent on clothes is like $130 on an oiled leather coat and the most spent on a shirt is like $20. People are crazy.

[masonjcarlton]

SO GLAD you made this video! I hate seeing people getting mislead by the fake mark-down tags.

[JGriff]

I worked for Nordstrom's corporate offices and a lot of their actual product does go to the rack for a very discounted price by the same manufacturers and the exact same quality. They just don't have enough product from full line stores that doesn't sell quick enough to fill the 200+ rack stores so they have to supplement it with other product

[leealexander]

I still love the outlet near me. My concern isn't getting high end for less but to consistently get the style of underwent I prefer. Also I can get light weight hoodies with pockets for horse cookies for summer which is something I can't find anywhere else.

[azuretrio]

I didn't know you were supposed to believe these were actually ever meant to be that "original" price. I always thought it was like, if you were to pay the real thing, it would have been this much.
I just always buy at thrift stores or from the artists themselves.

[Unnatural]

Bought $200 asics shoe from outlet...so you're telling me I didn't buy an legit asics at all...