Rapha to open outlet store at designer village in Somerset

I feel your pain.

a_to_the_j wrote:

...reading between the lines : "we are not going to dent our high end retail store and online sales by offering old style stock through those outlets, instead we'll stick em all in some 'store' so people can buy them and sell them on ebay later in the hope of making a quick buck"

'Outlet stores' are massive in the States, to the point where they have become where most people do most of their shopping for clothing and shoes. They tend to be huge retail parks, with up to 100 different stores, located off important Interstate junctions and advertised via huge hoardings from tens of miles out.

Certainly they offer discounted end-of-line bargains but I think the main attraction for the customer is access to the full range of a favoured brand's items. The brand benefits from cutting out the 'middleman' of the general retailer and also gains direct access to their customers ... you are very much encouraged, when making a purchase, to give them your email address for upcoming 'special offers' for example. Being as we tend to follow the trends from the States I think it is quite likely that we'll be seeing more of these outlet centres over the coming years.

Joeinpoole wrote:

a_to_the_j wrote:

...reading between the lines : "we are not going to dent our high end retail store and online sales by offering old style stock through those outlets, instead we'll stick em all in some 'store' so people can buy them and sell them on ebay later in the hope of making a quick buck"

'Outlet stores' are massive in the States, to the point where they have become where most people do most of their shopping for clothing and shoes. They tend to be huge retail parks, with up to 100 different stores, located off important Interstate junctions and advertised via huge hoardings from tens of miles out.

Certainly they offer discounted end-of-line bargains but I think the main attraction for the customer is access to the full range of a favoured brand's items. The brand benefits from cutting out the 'middleman' of the general retailer and also gains direct access to their customers ... you are very much encouraged, when making a purchase, to give them your email address for upcoming 'special offers' for example. Being as we tend to follow the trends from the States I think it is quite likely that we'll be seeing more of these outlet centres over the coming years.

Outlet stores are already massive in the UK - Bicester Village is something like the 3rd most visited tourist attraction in the UK (also it has a Paul Smith shop where I've picked up loads of pieces from the Rapha + Paul Smith collaboration in the the past at about half RRP).

Having an outlet is fairly standard for lots of luxury brands. Usually discounts range from 30-70% and sometimes you'll pick up stuff that was ordered but never made it into stores for whatever reason.