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A store like Nordstrom is not going to be throwing out cloths, they will just discount them in their stores. Ultra-premium brands may throw out unsold merchandise though as they are veblen goods.
Where do you think the clothes go when they dont sell, or become out of season? Nordstroms does not infinatley keep them on the racks until everything sells. Eventually they write them off as a loss and toss them. My freaking soon to be father in law is a district manager for a retail clothing chain, and my fiance has endless stories of all the crap that the stores throw out. I know they do it for a fact.
Where do you think the clothes go when they dont sell, or become out of season?
They will discount the cloths, its not that difficult to liquid an item at a discount. Also, they pay push cloths back to the manufacturing (if their contract allows such) in which case the manufacture may end up selling them to a place like TJ Maxx. I'm sure nordstroms either tosses out or donates some cloths though, odd pieces, returns, etc, but its clear from going to their store that its not their first line of defense.
If your soon to freaking be father in law is managing a store that is throwing away a lot of cloths I'd suggest they need to find a new manager.
A lot of the high-end stores will move out-of-season clothes to "discount" stores (I believe Saks has "Saks Off 5th" or something like that). Designers will move them to discount/outlet places. You know, making that slave labor working harder.
They will discount the cloths, its not that difficult to liquid an item at a discount.
A store is only going to spend so much time trying to liquidate inventory, and only at a certain price point.
How about a local JC Penney. I went in there to scour the discount racks, in very early spring, when they were loaded with winter clothes. I went back in maybe a week later, and the racks were practically unchanged. I went back not two weeks later, and they were completely gone.
Now, lets try to guess what happened to them
A. They dissapeared in to thin air
B. The clothes were thrown out or shipped off to Big Lots/AJ Wright/Conway etc.
C. Five racks full of out of date winter clothes sold in less then 14 days
If you guessed B, you are correct.
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Originally Posted by user_id
Also, they pay push cloths back to the manufacturing (if their contract allows such) in which case the manufacture may end up selling them to a place like TJ Maxx. I'm sure nordstroms either tosses out or donates some cloths though, odd pieces, returns, etc, but its clear from going to their store that its not their first line of defense.
The first line of defense is a discount rack, that is all stores first line of defense. However, at the point where it is no longer cost effective to store, market, display, or sell the merchandise, it is disposed of in some other way. I dont care what you believe, these stores have literally hundreds and thousands of articles of clothing that never sell every single season. That is one of the biggest reasons why clothing mark ups are so high, especially on higher end manufacturers clothing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by user_id
If your soon to freaking be father in law is managing a store that is throwing away a lot of cloths I'd suggest they need to find a new manager.
Its corporate policy to throw away all the clothes that dont sell by X point in time or at X price point. This is what a smart store would do.
If you understood anything at all about any type of retail, you would realize that warehousing and selling anything at deep discounts for months on end isnt worth the loss write off nine times out of ten. Then again, you are probably the sort of genius who would take up half your store with discount racks trying to sell crap that is 6 seasons out of date.
By the way, my soon to be father in law manages about 20 stores.....guess he must have done something right along the way.
A store is only going to spend so much time trying to liquidate inventory, and only at a certain price point.
Yes after which they often send it to an outlet store. For example, Nordstrom has "Nordstrom Rack". There is really no need to toss out large amounts of cloths. All stores toss out some cloths though, there are naturally going to be defects, bad returns, etc. For a large department store that may produce what looks like a lot of cloths being thrown away even if its only .1% of all cloths they buy.
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Originally Posted by Randomdude
If you guessed B, you are correct.
You are just guessing, yet you think you are correct? Rather odd, in reality you have no idea what happened. I would not even bother guessing. There are more options though, for example:
D.) The cloths were sent to another JC Penny in a lower income area to be further discounted and sold.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Randomdude
I dont care what you believe, these stores have literally hundreds and thousands of articles of clothing that never sell every single season.
A large department store tossing a couple hundred pieces of cloths is like you tossing out a few pennies. That is a very very small fraction of the total they purchase. Just defects, crap returns and tossing odd ball pieces will result in thousands of pieces being tossed each season, but these are not otherwise salable cloths.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Randomdude
If you understood anything at all about any type of retail, you would realize that warehousing and selling anything at deep discounts for months on end isnt worth the loss write off nine times out of ten.
No where have I claimed that stores let things rot on discount racks for "months", rather that they sale the majority of it via their own sales and that they have mechanisms to deal with the excess.
Lastly, "if you understood anything at all about the apparel industry you would realize" that the vast majority of unused apparel tends up donated (often going to poor nations) or being sold to companies that recycle it (e.g., into shop rags). There is a reason whenever you see pictures of Africa they are often wearing American cloths....
Anyhow, none of this has to do with my initial point which is just that you are not really getting the same cloths available in Nordstrom at TJ Maxx just a few mouths behind. TJ Maxx at best will get the merchandise that sold poorly at Nordstrom, etc. But quality wise its going to be the same stuff.
It is just stuff, whether you buy it from Nordstrom's or Wal-mart. Health, love, and security will beat stuff anytime, no matter where it is purchased.
Or take advantage of the stores and use them to your advantage. Since they have to cater to the super rich, the stores have to constantly have new product to sell them. When you see things you like, give your number to a salesperson. Things are still rough right now, they will call you when they go down in price because selling a sale priced item is better than nothing that day. You can get free shipping and perks for having a store card. I write a check to pay my card and then purchase with the store card on every purchase therefore collecting the rewards and never paying finance charges. Yes, there is no reason to spend $50 on a T-shirt but what about the classic Cole Haan loafers I bought 14 yrs. ago for $87? How many cheap shoes did someone else buy during this time? What's the better deal? Or the gray cashmere cardigan I bought after Xams 1995 for $74 (which I thought was almost unattainable)? I still wear it and still get compliments. In other words, don't buy before it has taken at least one markdown, you can always find coupons online, in the mail, etc., and get on the list for the salespeople. Don't give them your #, just your e-mail. Shop January/February and June/July for best deals. Never give them a cent in finance charges! You'll have better things which will last you and that is really the best deal.
Why should I pay high prices at the high end stores when I can get the same thing at TJ Maxx and Marshalls for a lot less in a few months?
I discovered this secret about 2 months ago. The same dress shirts that I liked at Macy's for between $60 and $190 at (Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren) cost about $20 at TJ Maxx or Marshalls (and sometimes Ross if I get lukcy). Now I get to buy nice dress shirts there whenever they have a style I don't have yet, since it is always affordable.
Also I do a lot of my clothes shopping on Ebay now. This works great if you know what size works for you for specific brands since you won't have to try things on.
Nordstrom's and Saks Fifth Ave. aren't exactly HIGH-END retailers, they're targeted to middle-class and upper-middle class consumers; not the uber rich. There are different tiers of retailers, anyone with a 6 figure salary shouldn't have to worry about shopping at either of these unless they have some serious debt problems.
I'd like to know your definition of middle class? If you think those stores are really middle class, no wonder the middle class is shrinking....
Think about it this way...the gap between buying all your clothes at a place like JC Penny or Target and buying them all at Nordstrom is about the difference between the cost of owning a well equipped Nissan Sentra and a well equipped Toyota Camry....in other words, not really a huge difference...would you think that someone who drives a Camry is spending THAT much more than someone who owns a Sentra?
A lot of stuff at Nordstrom isn't even that expensive.
A plain shirt at JC Penney or Target is half/more than half the price a similar shirt in Nordstrom. It adds up....
Last edited by LexWest; 08-07-2010 at 02:59 PM..
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