Markdowns

The Mrs. and I celebrated our nation's independence in a most patriotic and quintessentially American way: we went shopping. But we didn't go to just any old stale suburban mall; no, we went outlet shopping.

Outlet shopping is one of the few things I can't do on my own, because of the locations. The outlet center we visited on Wednesday is located about 35 miles southeast of Boston. It is not close enough to any public transit, so you have to go by car. There is a company that runs bus charters, but it costs around $35 round trip, which is just outright robbery. The other relatively nearby outlet option is Kittery, Maine, just over the border from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This too is beyond the reach of public transit. As such we go maybe three times a year, which realistically is often enough, considering the time and travel involved.

I first discovered the joys (and disappointments) of outlet shopping in the early 80's on a visit to L.L. Bean in Freeport, Maine. The surrounding storefronts on Main Street had been filled by retailers looking to take advantage of the Bean faithful flocking to Freeport by unloading some of their past-season merchandise on them. Outlet retail has grown into its own entity; companies like Gap and J. Crew now produce separate product lines specifically for sale at their outlet stores.

This can sometimes lead to confusion among less-savvy shoppers. The thing about shopping at outlets is, the "bargains" are often dubious. There's a lot of merchandise that just isn't very good, and some things that I would be interested in but that aren't discounted enough for my liking. Then there are the near-misses: not the right color, not the right size. My friend David says, "You have to know what things cost," meaning that having some idea of what the item sells for in the non-outlet world gives you a sense of whether or not you are in fact getting a good deal at an outlet store.

I tend to have the best luck when I'm not looking for anything in particular. I have in the past gone looking for a specific item and found it, but that doesn't happen often. This time around I was hoping to find several things, so naturally I didn't find any of them. I didn't come away empty-handed, but it wasn't as successful a trip as some others have been. The Mrs. has a bit of a bag fetish, so I was not surprised that she bought a new bag, but I was surprised that it was for her sister and not herself. But she got a new bag when we went to New York a couple of weeks ago, so maybe next time.