What is the meaning of outlet price?

Question

I was on the bicester villiage web page.

http://www.bicestervillage.com/Bicester/village/specialoffers.asp?vId=7698

As you see, they say as: ( it is CK's page for special offer )

Suits: £269, RRP £650

Jackets: 20% off outlet price

Shirts: Buy one get 2nd half price

Ladies Calvin Klein collection 20% off outlet price

I just do not understand this outlet price. In my country, China, we have several oulets shops in Beijing. My girl friend and I go shopping pretty often during spare time, good brand with very shocking discount.

When found this outlet price in the webpage, I just do not understand. What is it? Does it mean that you can find this price in a outlets shop, which can never be seen in downtown regular retailer?

The RRP to me is just a gimmick. In China, we can see the RRP price but normally it is only the trick played by manufacturer trying to help their distribution, which just make their retailer very happy. Every customer just knows it and ignore it.

Answer 1

Bicester Village is a shopping centre where shops and manufacturers sell end of line stock cheaply.

A large shop such as Marks and Spencers can not keep trying to sell items past the season or when they only have 2 or 3 left.  They need to make room for new stock.  So all these things get moved to outlet centres where they are sold off cheaply.

The suits are have a Recommended Retail Price of £650, but are sold for £269.  The jackets would also be sold cheaper than they would be in the High Street shop and in this case have been reduced by a further 20%

Hope that makes sense.

Answer 2

Just to clear this up, in the UK the phrase "outlet" in this context usually refers to stores that sell end of season items and seconds.  These are sold for a lower price than items in regular stores.  These stores are used by the major brands to shift old stock that did not sell in the original season.  In order to protect their brand they only put these items through selected "outlets" or "clearance stores", where this stock is marked down by as much as 75%.  These stores are usually sited on "designer villages" such as bicester and cheshire oaks.  Clearance outlets are not allowed to sell the up-to-date ranges that are sold in regular stores, just items that are out of fashion.

The downside to these stores is that they have limited size ranges, (often just XX and XS), and are usually restricted to items of clothing that no-one wanted originally (ie. they were left over at the end of a previous season because they werent very good pieces).

More recently, brands have made ranges specifically for the clearance outlet chains (company's like TK Maxx), these are usually of a slightly inferior quality, or perhaps are not as seasonal.  This helps these stores stock full size ranges.  However it doesnt devalue the price of the brand in the regular store, so people will still pay a premium price for the latest designer items.

The question that a consumer has to ask themselves when shopping at an outlet village, is do I want to look fashionable? or do I want to wear a brand for as cheap as possible?

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

An outlet is a branch of the shop concerned.  For example Boots the Chemists has outlets(Boots shops) in most British towns and cities.  It could be that it is legal for the Outlet Manager to price items himself rather than at a uniform price.  This is legal practice where I live in Réunion.  The same item in the same chain of supermarket are priced differently depending where you live, ie a rich neighbourhood or a poorer one.

So, 20% off outlet price means 20% off the price that the outlet manager has fixed.