Just finished buying a new suit for my wardrobe. I shopped around at a couple of places and walking away with terminal sticker shock I decided to go to one of those suit warehouses. After looking for awhile I was able to find a really suit that fit me extremely well (hides my love handles) and looked great. The best part was it was over two hundred dollars cheaper than what I was about to buy at the previous store.
The only difference I noticed between the high end stores and the warehouse stores was the warehouses weren’t as nice or elegant and the help was a lot more attentive at the posh places. Other than that I really didn’t notice any difference between the quality of the suits.
How can the warehouse places afford to sell their suits so cheaply?
I used to work in a “real” factory outlet store in a nearby city noted for its clothing manufacture. (This was 25 years ago before “factory outlet” malls were all over creation.)
There are a few factors resulting in the lower prices.
In some cases, you are buying directly from the manufacturer who is unloading overruns, returned orders, etc. They could also be suits from last year’s fabrics or styles. In this case, there are no additional layers of wholesalers/distributors marking up the costs at each level.
I’m sure you understand that it takes no more effort to manufacture a brand name designer item than a no-name suit. If fact, they’re made by the same folks in the same places. Little design changes and different labels sewn in is really all the difference in many cases. So when you buy a top-dollar, designer brand in a fancy department store there’s just some really serious markup going on. (To pay for the slick ads in the fat magazines that contain perfume samples, the high rent of the fancy mall store, the base pay and sales commission for the helpful salespersons, and of course the big name designer’s cut.) The warehouse store gets the suits with the generic labels and displays them in a warehouse.
Well I don’t wear my suits often so they last me quite awhile. And Like I said the suit felt great, fit great and looked great. I really didn’t notice any type of quality difference from what I bought and what I was going to buy. I’m just happy I didn’t have to shell out three hundred bucks for something I wear less than five times a year. Plus I look good in it if I don’t mind saying so myself.
If it’s the same suit your paying for in both places, then part of what your paying for is the expertise of the staff. A good suit store will have staff that can help you navigate through the various materials, fabrics, styles, construction quality, dos and don’ts and advise you about which particular suits would fit your particular frame and complexion. Service is usually much better, if you have any problems with your suit, there will be much less hassle returning it.
Additionally, your paying for convenience as mall places charge higher rent for more convenient shopping.
Of course, if you don’t care about such things, feel free to find the cheapest price for your product. It just means your no longer allowed to decry the loss of small business and the deadening of American towns due to Walmarts and Strip Malls :D.
Your average department store or traditional men’s shop has one or two price ranges/market sectors of clothing, and often a limited range of styles in clothing. A true old-fashioned warehouse store - at least in major markets like metro NY, where I am - has the ability to mix market sectors and styles. There you can find a certain amount of deeply discounted designer/premium label stuff (Polo, Hickey Freeman, Hugo Boss), a good selection of medium priced names (Hart Schaffner Marx, Bill Blass), and a whole lot of cheapie suiting (often carrying “old growth” designers’ names like John Weitz or Oleg Cassini).
Stores like Men’s Wearhouse are ripping off the warehouse idea by selling at good prices, but basically target-marketing. Their clothing is mostly no-name or some brand you never heard of, but is of generally good quality and well priced. It is targeted to young, urban, middle-class desk jockeys who want a basically European look that fits into an office, but imitates up-market duds.
Yeah, I’ve spent a lot of time clothes shopping. So?