Clearance items from the brand’s full-price retail locations.At stores like this, shoppers find a variety of items. In Nordstrom’s case, discount locations operate under the name Nordstrom Rack. Many retailers, such as Nordstrom, operate discount retail locations. Factories are typically far outside urban cores, and outlets needed to be near their factories.Preventing competition between the outlet and retail locations.Taking advantage of cheaper land and retail space in sparsely populated areas.These stores were located far outside urban centers for a variety of reasons, such as: Thus, the traditional factory outlet meaning literally is a store that sells a factory’s goods that can't be sold in the brand’s traditional retail stores. A few notable factory outlets that operate on this model include: These stores sold the damaged and excess goods produced by the factory at sharp discounts, in some cases only to the company’s employees and in others, to the general public. When they weren't attached to the factories, they were located fairly close by. Traditionally, factory outlets were store locations attached to factories that manufactured the goods sold within. Another key to understanding the difference between outlet and store is understanding the history of factory outlets and the true factory outlet meaning. Go check the differences in your local outlet mall and let us know in comments, if there were more factory outlets or outlet shops.It can be easier to understand the difference between factory and company retail stores by looking at a few examples of both. The difference is: when you shop in factory outlet, you get pieces directly from the manufacturer and in general outlet store you buy from a retailer. The label “outlet store” is often used for all types of stores that offer discounted pieces. Today there are third party sellers who don’t produce their own products, but specialize only on discounted merchandise from other manufacturers. The outlet market was and still is growing and, logically, this attracted third parties to participate in the “outlet industry” – this is when the difference between outlet stores and factory outlets developed. Outlet stores differentiated as third party sellers entered the market TIP: read more about the history of outlet shopping.Īs time went by, outlet stores got separated from factories and now you can usually find various stores grouped in outlet malls or centers where they are more accessible to bigger number of customers. What we now call outlet stores were at the beginning only factory outlets – those tiny shops right next to factories, where you could watch the manufacturing process and buy overstock merchandise or irregular pieces for better prices. The difference goes deeper to the history, when there were no outlet malls and no outlet stores (hard to imagine, right?). outlet store is usually run by a retailer that sells returned and discontinued pieces from various manufacturers.Īt the beginning there were factory outlets.Factory outlet is a store in which manufacturer sells his own branded products for better prices,.They both sell branded merchandise for better price, so what is the difference? Factory outlet vs.

But there are also shops, whose name you have never heard before (and chances are you will never hear again) and in those you can buy pieces from various brands. Some of them look just like regular stores, they have their famous brand written all over the place, and only the prices are lower than regular. Walking through an outlet mall you can see various types of outlet stores.

Express factory outlet vs express